SINGAPORE (Mar 2): Asset trader Oei Hong Leong is withdrawing his acceptance of an offer by Asia-Pacific Strategic Investments (APSI) for his stake in IPC Corp.

On Jan 29, APSI had entered into a conditional letter of offer to acquire a 46.91% stake in IPC with 32.96% coming from Oei and the other 13.95% from IPC CEO Patrick Ngiam and his brothers.

Oei is considered a party in concert with the offeror as he owns a 34.82% stake in APSI after the tycoon subscribed to about four billion rights shares in an earlier sub-underwriting arrangement.

If the acquisition goes through, this will trigger a mandatory unconditional offer for IPC under Singapore's takeover code.

But in a filing on Friday night, IPC informed shareholders it was notified by APSI that it had received a letter from Oei on Mar 1 withdrawing his acceptance of the letter of offer dated Jan 26 in relation to APSI's intended acquisition of his 28.1 million IPC shares.

APSI said the board "is currently seeking professional advice in relation to the withdrawal and will provide further updates as and when material developments concerning the above arise" and urged shareholders to exercise caution when trading with its shares.

In the Jan 29 filing, APSI said it planned to acquire IPC to enlarge its property development business. It also said that it planned to keep IPC's listing status and intended for the IPC to continue its existing business activities. APSI had also planned to issue 133 new shares to pay for each IPC share.