Abu Dhabi sovereign fund offers to sell US$150 mil of RHB shares

The block trade of 120 million shares is expected to raise between US$148.9 million and US$152.2 million.

KUALA LUMPUR: Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Company has offered to sell around US$150 million worth of shares in Malaysia’s RHB Bank Bhd in a block trade on Tuesday, sources familiar with the deal said.

Mubadala, which is the second largest shareholder in RHB through the 17.8% stake held by its unit Aabar Investments, has put the shares up for sale in the 5.07 to 5.18 ringgit range, two sources said.

The offer represents a 3% to 5% discount to RHB’s closing share price of 5.34 ringgit on Tuesday, and a steeper discount to the 10.80 ringgit Aabar paid per share when it bought a 25% stake from government-owned Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank in 2011.

Aabar has been seeking opportunities to sell off the shares since 2015. “They want to sell the whole block, but it takes time,” a source said.

A term sheet seen by Reuters showed that the block trade of 120 million shares was expected to raise between US$148.9 million and US$152.2 million.

The shares represents approximately 3% of RHB’s enlarged share capital, “with upsize option subject to demand”.

Bankers CIMB and JP Morgan are joint bookrunnners on the deal, according to the term sheet.

RHB and JP Morgan were not immediately available to comment. Mubadala and CIMB declined to comment.

Aabar completed its merger into Mudabala in 2017.

A year ago, RHB’s discussions to acquire AMMB Holdings Bhd (Ambank) in an all-stock deal fell through.

The deal would have cemented its position as the nation’s number 4 lender behind Maybank, CIMB Group Holdings and Public Bank.

RHB’s largest shareholder, pension fund Employees Provident Fund, has a 40.7% stake in the bank. -FMT