Sotheby’s Outside Investor: Singapore’s Shanda

The Federal Trade Commission finally revealed the outside investor interested in acquiring more Sotheby’s stock. It’s online-game-developer-turned-financial firm, Shanda Group, based in Singapore.

As of the end of the first quarter, Shanda held less than 2% of the Sotheby’s. Now that they have FTC approval, they can acquire more stock. However, the FTC approval is different from the disclosures triggered by Shanda’s acquiring more than 5% or 10% of the stock.

So we’ll know more about where Shanda’s ambitions lie once the reach one of those trigger points:

Companies must get approval from antitrust agencies for deals valued at more than $76.3 million. Shanda’s stake was valued at $31 million at the end of March.

Shanda reported its initial acquisition of 594,544 Sotheby’s shares at the end of December. Shanda Group’s main lines of investments are in private equity, public markets and real estate, according to its website.

Sotheby’s Holder Shanda Gets Antitrust Approval on Stake  (Bloomberg)