Khazanah sells 161m Westports shares (Update)

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 161.52 million shares of Westports Holdings Bhd was transacted in an off-market deal on Friday, which was the block owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd.
 
Stock market data showed the shares, which represented a 4.74% stake, were transacted at an average price of RM2.90 and were carried out via a book building exercise.

Shares of the port operator closed unchanged at RM3.

StarBiz reported Khazanah Nasional was looking to divest its stake in Westports which was in line with its policy to reduce stakes in companies deemed as non-strategic in its portfolio of investments.

Westports’ largest shareholders are Pembinaan Redzai Sdn Bhd with a 42.39% stake and South Port Invest Holdings Ltd with 23.55%.

Pembinaan Redzai is majority held by Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam while South Port is a unit of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s ports-to-telecoms conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.

Other notable shareholders include Semakin Ajaib Sdn Bhd which includes Gnanalingam’s wife Puan Sri Siew Yong and his son Ruben.

Prior to Westports’ IPO, Khazanah and Semakin reportedly owned 8.5% each in the company.