SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Tat Hong Holdings Ltd (>> Tat Hong Holdings Limited), a Singapore-based supplier of cranes, said it had received a non-binding letter from Standard Chartered Private Equity (Singapore) proposing to buy shares in the company at S$0.50 apiece.

The Standard Chartered PE (SCPE) proposal is subject to conditions including an agreement of definitive partnership terms with the existing management team and founding family members, Tat Hong said a filing to the stock exchange on Friday.

The offer represents a premium of nearly 9 percent to Tat Hong's closing price of S$0.46 on Thursday. Trading in the stock was halted on Friday ahead of the announcement.

There was no certainty that any transaction would arise from the proposal by SCPE, the company said. Tat Hong informed the markets in September about being approached by certain parties for a potential transaction.

Tat Hong, whose shares are valued by the market at about S$345 million ($254 million), has been listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Stock Exchange since 2000. It says it is the largest crane-owning company in the Asia-Pacific region with a fleet size of more than 1,500 crawler, mobile and tower cranes.

The controlling shareholders, Chwee Cheng and Sons along with related parties, own more than half the shares, according to its latest annual report.

(This version of the story corrects headline and first paragraph to show offer is to buy Tat Hong shares, not entire firm; consequent changes to the second and fifth paragraphs)

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Stocks treated in this article : Standard Chartered, Tat Hong Holdings Limited