ANZ exits AMMB, while major shareholders of Malayan Cement and Sunway trim stakes.

KUALA LUMPUR (May 30): Malaysia’s recent stock market rally has provided opportunities for substantial shareholders to take some profit off the table.

Just Thursday alone, substantial stakes in three companies, namely AMMB Holdings Bhd (KL:AMBANK), Sunway Bhd (KL:SUNWAY) and Malayan Cement Bhd (KL:MCEMENT), were made available for investors.

ANZ exits AMMB

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) is inviting bids to sell its remaining 5.17% stake in AMMB. It is learnt that ANZ could fetch up to RM701.16 million from the share sales.

This is the last tranche of AMMB shares that the Aussie banking group has in hand. The sale would mark the exit of ANZ from Malaysia’s sixth-largest lender by assets.

According to a term sheet sighted by The Edge, ANZ's wholly-owned subsidiary ANZ Fund Pty Ltd is putting up its remaining 171.02 million shares in AMMB for sale at an offer price of RM4.05 to RM4.10.

The offer price range represents a 2.84% to 4.03% discount to AMMB's closing price of RM4.22 on Thursday.

The offer is set to close on Thursday night with the trade date fixed for Friday.

CIMB Investment Bank and BofA Securities are the joint bookrunners for the block of shares being put up via ANZ Fund.

In March, ANZ, which has long made known its intention to let go of its block of AMMB shares, offloaded a 16.5% stake in AMMB for RM2.1 billion, slashing its stake to 5.17%.

AMMB’s largest shareholder currently is the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), with a 14.3% stake, followed by founder Tan Sri Azman Hashim’s 11.8% stake.

Sunway’s Cheah family vehicle trims stake

The Cheah family’s private vehicle Sungei Way Corp Sdn Bhd is looking to sell up to a 3.52% stake in Sunway Bhd for RM704 million.

Sungei Way is offering up to 200 million shares — base 150 million shares coupled with a 50-million-share upsize option — at RM3.52 apiece, according to people familiar with the matter.

The offer price represents a 2.76% discount to Sunway’s closing price of RM3.62 on Thursday and a 4.8% discount to the counter’s five-day volume weighted average price of RM3.6975.

The Edge learnt that the offer closed at 7pm on Thursday with the share transfer set to take place on Friday. CGS International is the sole placement agent for the deal.

Following the share sale, Sungei Way’s stake would be 45.05%, dropping from 48.57% currently. Founder and chairman Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah Fook Ling’s total stake would be trimmed to 70.94% — comprising 10.88% direct and 60.05% indirect stakes.

The patriarch of the Sunway Group, together with his family, would remain Sunway’s largest shareholder, followed by EPF’s 5.22% stake.

Shares in Sunway ended unchanged at RM3.62 on Thursday, valuing the group at RM20.54 billion.

YTL cuts stake in Malayan Cement, brings up public shareholding spread

YTL Cement Bhd, 98%-owned by YTL Corp Bhd (KL:YTL), is seeking to sell a 5% stake in building materials group Malayan Cement for up to RM325.4 million.

According to a term sheet, YTL Cement is offering its 66 million shares in Malayan Cement through an accelerated bookbuilding process, pricing them at RM4.93 per share.

This represents a discount of up to 5.19% to Malayan Cement's closing price of RM5.20 on Thursday, and a 6.29% discount to the stock’s five-day volume weighted average price of RM5.2610.

At RM5.20, Malayan Cement is valued at RM6.88 billion.

Maybank Investment Bank is the bookrunner for the block of shares being offered.

Upon completion of the deal, YTL Cement’s shareholding in Malayan Cement is expected to fall to 73.58%, from 78.58% previously, according to the company's last disclosure of its shareholding on January 23.

The deal would also increase Malayan Cement’s public shareholdings to above the 25% level.

Recall that YTL Cement’s RM5.16 billion merger deal with Malayan Cement in 2022 gave rise to YTL Cement owning an over 78% stake, and back then, Bursa Malaysia had accepted a public shareholding spread of 21.37%.

However, Bursa also advised Malayan Cement to use its best endeavours to increase the percentage of public shareholding spread to 25%.

The KLCI has rallied by 10.3% since the beginning of the year, after the government urged government-linked companies (GLC) and government-linked investment companies (GLIC) to repatriate their earnings abroad in a bid to ease pressure on ringgit.

The FBM Top 100 Index has climbed 13%, while the FBM Mid 70 has climbed 20.6%, year to date.

As the rally in Bursa Securities starts showing signs of tapering from its recent high [See charts], it will be interesting to see if there will be more stake sale by substantial shareholders in the near future before the government-linked market players run out of ammunition.