KUALA LUMPUR: Less than a fortnight after the Minister of Finance Inc (MoF) unit Aroma Teraju Sdn Bhd emerged as the second-largest shareholder of engineering specialist firm Destini Bhd, the latter announced yesterday that Merril Lynch International had ceased to be its substantial shareholder.

Filings with Bursa Malaysia yesterday showed that Merill Lynch disposed of 40.16 million of its shares on Aug 27. No amount was stated in the announcement, but according to Bloomberg data, the off-market transaction was made at 58 sen per share or RM23.29 million in total. Interestingly, Merill Lynch’s stake disposal — which represents about 5% of Destini’s share base — came just a day before the emergence of Aroma Teraju in the group after acquiring 200 million shares or a 24.75% stake, also at 58 sen a share, or RM116 million in total.

According to a source familiar with Destini, Merill Lynch’s stake disposal has no connection to the acquisition by MoF Inc.

It is not immediately known, however, to whom the fund has disposed of its stake as it was a block transaction. Aroma Teraju acquired its interest in the group, which is involved in aviation, marine as well as oil and gas, from Harbour Asia Opportunity Master Fund and Lim Nyuk Sang@Freddy Lim.

Filings show that Cayman Islands-registered Harbour Asia sold 160 million Destini shares on Aug 28 in a direct off-market transaction, thus ceasing to be a substantial shareholder. 

Lim, on the other hand, disposed of 40 million of his shares on the same day. Currently, Lim holds a direct stake of 6.69% and an indirect interest of 2.04% in Destini.

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on September 10, 2015.