NASDAQ-LISTED Multi-Fineline Electronix (M-Flex) has agreed to a Singapore regulator's ruling to further extend the deadline for the fulfilment of certain pre-conditions in the ongoing saga of its takeover bid for sister company MFS Technology.

United States-based M-Flex said in a statement on Friday that it continues to 'strongly recommend' that its shareholders vote against the offer.

The deadline will be extended by three months, to June 30 from March 31, in accordance with the ruling by Singapore's Securities Industry Council (SIC).

M-Flex launched a US$500 million (S$758.8 million) bid for MFS in March last year, but later said that it wished to withdraw its offer after MFS reported poor earnings.

The SIC has rebuffed M-Flex's attempts to obtain its approval to withdraw the offer.

The acquisition would have created the world's second-largest maker of flexible printed circuit boards.

Under the original terms of the offer, there are certain pre-conditions that could release M-Flex from its obligations to proceed, including the failure of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to declare the registration statement regarding the offer effective by Dec 31 last year.

M-Flex said it had filed an amendment to the registration statement with the SEC on March 19, although as at March 31, the statement had not yet been declared effective.

Another pre-condition is that stockholders of mainboard-listed WBL Corp must approve the acceptance of the offer. As at early January, WBL Corp held 55.8 per cent of M-Flex and 55.7 per cent of MFS.

Following the M-Flex announcement, WBL advised its shareholders, in a statement to the Singapore Exchange on Saturday, to refrain from taking any action that may be prejudicial to their interests, and to exercise caution when dealing in their stock units in WBL.

WBL added that it will issue an announcement if there are any further material developments.