Nomura completed a 4.5 million share placement for Great Eastern Holdings on Friday after beating two other investment banks in a bake-off the previous night.
Great Eastern, in which OCBC Bank owns a 49% stake, has been one of Singapore's best performing financial stocks this year, up 24.62% to Friday's S$12.40 close. At these levels, it is just off its 52 week high of S$13.40 and nearly 100% higher than where it traded last March when it hit an S$6.95 low. For the undisclosed selling shareholder it was, therefore, felt to be an opportune time to offload a 1% stake.
The placement was also a welcome addition for the public equity markets given that the...
