SINGAPORE: A consortium of three property developers backed by Singapore state investor Temasek offered to buy media group Singapore Press Holdings for S$3.34 billion (US$2.48 billion) on Friday, seeking to out-bid conglomerate Keppel Corp.

The consortium Cuscaden Peak offered S$2.1 per share in cash for Singapore Press, marginally topping Keppel's more complicated cash-plus-share offer of S$2.099.

Keppel's offer to buy Singapore Press, which publishes the city-state's main newspaper, comes after the latter's decision to transfer its media business - comprising publications including the Strait Times and the Business Times - into a not-for-profit company in May.

Trading in shares of the newspaper publisher were halted on Friday morning and it was yet to respond to a Reuters request for comment. Keppel said in a statement that it would review the Cuscaden Peak's all-cash offer and make an announcement at an appropriate time.

Cuscaden Peak is 40% held by a unit of Singapore-based Hotel Properties Tiga Stars, and 30% each by units of Adenium and Mapletree Fortress, which are part of Temasek portfolio companies CLA and Mapletree, respectively.

WRITER: REUTERS