COURTS Singapore could soon be delisted, a year after it was taken over by two private equity groups.

In a stock exchange filing last night, the furniture and appliance retailer said its majority shareholder Singapore Retail Group (SRG) now owns more than 90 per cent of its shares.

Under Singapore takeover rules, this means SRG has the right to buy any Courts shares it does not own and take the company private, as it earlier intended to do.

According to the statement, filed by Courts chief executive Terry O'Connor, SRG acquired 675,000 Courts shares in a series of open-market purchases and married trades between June 16 and 30.

Earlier this week, SRG entered into similar transactions to acquire another 339,000 Courts shares that it will receive when the trades are settled next week. That will take its direct shareholding in Courts to 144.8 million shares and lift its combined direct and deemed stake from 89.83 per cent to 90.03 per cent.

SRG is an investment vehicle set up for the takeover offer for Courts in June last year. It is jointly owned by a US$490 million private equity fund, Baring Asia Private Equity Fund III, and Topaz Investment Worldwide, an investment vehicle of Kuwaiti financial services group The International Investor.

An unconditional takeover offer for Courts was triggered after SRG bought a 54.16 per cent stake in the firm from its then-parent Courts Group International for $56.2 million, or 64.5 cents a share.