Shareholders to delist Singapore's smallest telco M1

SINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Conglomerate Keppel Corp and Singapore Press Holdings said late Wednesday they would delist Singapore's smallest mobile operator M1 Ltd after their offer to buy control of the company closes.

Keppel and SPH said in September they would offer S$2.06 ($1.53) per share for majority ownership of M1 in a bid to support its falling share price and restructure the firm and make it more competitive. They together held about a one-third stake in M1 before the offer that values the company at S$1.9 billion.

This month, Malaysia's Axiata Group, the largest shareholder in M1, accepted the bid.

"Following a previous announcement that the offer has received the support of Axiata and numerous other shareholders, further acceptances have been received, resulting in the offeror and its concert parties controlling 90.15 percent in M1 today," Keppel and SPH said in a regulatory announcement issued by their jointly owned holding company.

The companies said they would delist M1 as at least 10 percent of its total number of shares would cease to be held by the public, as required by the bourse's listing rules.

They also extended the offer's closing date to March 18 from March 4.

($1 = 1.3484 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Stephen Coates)