This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 21, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian tycoon T Ananda Krishnan’s exit from Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed Smartgroup Corp Ltd last month saved him quite a bit of money, given the savaged Smartgroup’s share price on Monday when investors sold the stock down by 13.7% to A$9.49 (RM26.94) by the close.

The Australian Financial Review reported that from the salary packaging company’s July 2014 listing to last month, Ananda owned 25% of Smartgroup through Smart Packages Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Usaha Tegas Sdn Bhd. But on Oct 18, Ananda sold his entire stake for A$11.30 each, at a 6.6% discount to the prevailing market price, it said.

“Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan is notoriously media shy. So his exit via a Macquarie block trade from the strongly performing ASX-listed salary packaging company Smartgroup last month aroused relatively little notice but maybe it should have.

“Luckily for Ananda, the sale saved him quite a bit of money, given the savaged Smartgroup’s share price on Monday. Investors were less than impressed to learn Smartgroup chief executive officer Deven Billimoria is leaving in February, after 19 years leading the company. They sold the stock down 13.7% to A$9.49 by the close.

“Meaning that the A$370 million Krishnan secured for his 32.6 million shares in October would be worth only A$308.5 million if he held them now. He does not have a representative on the board, so must just be lucky. Or psychic,” The Australian Financial Review said.