FINANCIAL institution AMTD Group will inject 100 per cent of the equity interest in AMTD Assets Group, with a fair market value of approximately US$500 million, into its subsidiary AMTD Idea Group, said a Tuesday (Aug 16) bourse filing.

AMTD Assets, AMTD Group’s global real estate arm, holds a global portfolio of premium whole building properties, which includes Dao by Dorsett AMTD Singapore as well as properties in Hong Kong and Canada.

The net purchase consideration amounted to US$268 million, after deducting the outstanding liabilities associated with the properties, said the announcement. The consideration will be settled by the issuance of about 30.9 million newly issued Class B ordinary shares of AMTD Idea Group, at US$8.68 per share.

AMTD Idea Group, which is dual-listed in New York and Singapore, will then inject AMTD Assets into AMTD Digital at the same valuation in return for 515,385 newly issued Class B ordinary shares of AMTD Digital at US$520 per share, the companies said.

They added that upon completion of the transactions, AMTD Digital will own all of the equity interest in AMTD Assets, and AMTD Idea Group will further increase its ownership interest in AMTD Digital to 87.64 per cent and continue to consolidate AMTD Digital.

The transactions contemplated are expected to close in September 2022.

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“Our platform aims to extend our capability to allow for tokenising of real estate assets utilising blockchain technology,” said Mark Lo, chief executive officer of AMTD Digital.

“We intend to provide clients with direct access to real estate investments by removing intermediaries, reducing cost of transactions, and stepping up the efficiency of overall processes.”

In the announcement, AMTD Idea Group and AMTD Digital added that they understood that in the next 2 years, AMTD Group, its founder and chairman of AMTD Group Calvin Choi (together with his holding company) and the executive officers of AMTD Idea Group have undertaken that they will not sell any of their owned shares in AMTD Idea Group in the open market.

They, as well as the executive officers of AMTD Digital, have also undertaken that they will not sell any shares they own in AMTD Digital in the open market, the companies said.

This “voluntary 2-year lock-up undertaking”, said Feridun Hamdullahpur, chairman of the board of directors of AMTD Idea Group, “is a strong demonstration of the key shareholders’ commitment to the long-term development of the 2 listed companies”.

AMTD Idea Group is thinly traded in Singapore. Its shares were flat at S$12.97 on Tuesday.