Wednesday July 21, 2010
By ANITA GABRIEL
anita@thestar.com.my
PETALING JAYA: State investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd sold 178.87 million shares, or 5% stake, in Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) yesterday at RM3.25 each, raising some RM581mil.
The share placement exercise, launched on a fixed price of RM3.25 per share to local and foreign investors, was oversubscribed by three times.
The joint placement agents for the deal were Maybank Investment Bank Bhd and Nomura Singapore Ltd.
It is believed that 70% of the shares were placed out to domestic investors. TM shares lost 5 sen on Tuesday’s trade to close at RM3.34. At RM3.25, it represents a 2.7% discount to its closing price and 3.1% discount to the volume-weighted average price for yesterday.
As at March 15, Khazanah owned a 41.78% stake in TM.
“The demand (for TM shares) was very good and it shows the confidence investors have in TM and the overall market, in general.
“Also, Khazanah picked the right time to launch this deal,” said a source close to the deal.
Year-to-date, TM’s share price has gained about 9.2%, outperforming the benchmark FBM KLCI Index which has risen 5.1%.
A market observer speculated if this was part of a bigger plan by Khazanah to build up a war chest to raise its bid to take control of Singapore-listed Parkway Holdings Bhd.
Not necessarily so, said an analyst. “This is only a small portion of what Khazanah would really need to launch a counter bid to Fortis (Healthcare Ltd) for Parkway shares.
“It’s an ongoing selldown which Khazanah has been doing regularly in the past 12 months.
“It must have waited for the market to improve to launch the deal,” said the analyst.
In March this year, Khazanah sold a 7.7% stake in Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd through a private placement, raising some RM400mil.
This was, in fact, the second placement of MAHB shares, which followed an initial placement of 5% stake in September 2009.
In 2009, Khazanah carried out eight divestment exercises, raising RM3.1bil which resulted in gains of about RM1.2bil.
These divestments included stakes in Tenaga Nasional Bhd and PLUS Expressways Bhd.
Also on the cards is Khazanah’s divestment of its controlling 32.2% stake in Pos Malaysia Bhd which is expected to be sealed this year.
Back in early 2004, Khazanah sold a 9% stake in TM to a group of foreign investors, including Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Ltd in a deal that attracted a book cover of two times.
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/21/business/6704083&sec=business
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