Khazanah Raises $168.6m By Selling Telekom Malaysia Shares At Discount

Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd on Friday said it divested 172.3 million shares in telco player Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), raising gross proceeds of 735.7 million ringgit ($168.6 million).



The placement price of 4.27 ringgit per share represents a 3.61 per cent discount to TM’s closing price of 4.43 ringgit on Thursday, the fund said in a statement.

The share placement exercise is part of an ongoing portfolio restructuring by Khazanah, the proceeds of which will be utilised for new investments and diversification of asset allocation. The share sale is the largest telecommunications-related placement in Malaysia and the third largest in ASEAN so far this year, Khazanah said.

The sovereign wealth fund said domestic long-only funds, foreign institutional investors and existing institutional investors participated in the share placement exercise. Domestic institutional investors made up a majority of the buyers.

CIMB and Credit Suisse were joint bookrunners for the share placement exercise.

The transaction comes after Khazanah sold 12 million shares, equivalent to an 11.59 per cent stake, of ACE market-listed genetics screening company Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Bhd last week.