The revised offer from Ong's 98 Holdings consortium came just days before NatSteel's biggest shareholder, Indonesian businessman Oei Hong Leong, must publicly declare whether he will make a full offer for the steel miller.

Oei's Sanion Enterprises has been setting the pricing standard as it bought its way up to a 29.79 percent stake.

Although Sanion is short of the 30 percent threshold to make a mandatory general offer, it has been told by regulators to make known by the end of the week whether there will be a takeover bid for the government-linked company.

Ong's 98 Holdings, which is backed by the government investment arm Temasek Holdings, said it has also extended the closing date for its offer by two weeks until December 23, the third extension since launching the offer in October.

"We have committed almost 800 million dollars for the benefit of all shareholders. This is currently the only offer open to all shareholders, and we urge shareholders to accept our offer," 98 Holdings director David Ban said.

Temasek, which has a stake in NatSteel as well as 98 Holdings, has maintained that while it was involved in the bidding it "reserved the right to accept any higher competing bid that may arise".

The initial offer for the company, issued by a group of senior NatSteel executives in June, was formally rejected at an extraordinary general meeting last week.

Meanwhile, NatSteel issued a statement late Sunday saying it would consider paying out cash to shareholders after recent major asset sales but the amount was likely to be considerably less than the $1.55 dollars per share sought by Oei.

The cash would come from the $598.60 million received from the sale of NatSteel Broadway and NatSteel Brasil.

However, the entire amount could not be distributed to shareholders because NatSteel's leverage would increase and it is uncertain whether banks would continue to provide existing facilities on the same terms after the cash has been distributed, the company said.

NatSteel, the only steel miller in Singapore with a cement and precast concrete division, has businesses in Malaysia, China, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Its shares have more than doubled this year and were traded Monday in line with Ong's new offer at $2.05, up from their $2.03 close on Thursday. Singapore markets were closed for a public holiday on Friday.

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