KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 12): Gateway Development Alliance Sdn Bhd (GDA) on Wednesday announced that it has secured 98.68% of Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) (KL:AIRPORT) shares at the close of the consortium’s takeover offer for the airport operator.

AmInvestment Bank, on behalf of the joint offerors (GDA), informed Bursa Malaysia that the conditional voluntary offer by the consortium closed at 5pm on Wednesday.

GDA currently holds a 98.68% stake or 1.65 billion shares in MAHB. The stake will later rise to 98.69%, pending the transfer of an additional 0.02% stake or 302,600 shares to the consortium, according to the statement.

GDA is a consortium comprising Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the Employees Provident Fund Board (EPF), the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

With the close of the offer, Bursa will suspend the trading of MAHB shares from Feb 20, in preparation for the company’s delisting from the Main Market.

The offerors will also invoke Section 222 of the Capital Markets and Services Act (CMSA) to compulsorily acquire any remaining shares from dissenting shareholders. Necessary steps will also be taken to de-list the company, it added.

In May last year, GDA announced the acquisition of all the remaining 1.12 billion MAHB shares not already held by it, representing a 67.01% stake in the company, at RM11 per share. This values the airport operator at RM18.4 billion or nearly 38 times its earnings in 2023.

Under the proposal, Khazanah’s effective stake in MAHB will rise to 40% from 33.2%, while EPF’s will jump to 30% from 7.9%. ADIA and GIP will hold the remaining 30%. The Malaysian government will also retain a special share rights in MAHB.

Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja