KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 7): Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar expressed confidence in Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB)’s business fundamentals moving forward, despite the recent slump in the utility giant’s share price lately.

He acknowledged that TNB shares have been “slightly down”, but noted that TNB’s shares actually peaked in January and are currently more or less in line with the market.

Khazanah owns a 29.66% stake in TNB, whose share price declined to a 12-month low of RM11.38 yesterday. As at 3.54pm today, the stock was up two sen at RM11.40.

“We are quite confident; the business fundamentals (for TNB) are there. The numbers are there since TNB was listed; it can be calculated quite simply. We don’t just look from month to month,” he told reporters after the officiating ceremony of the GLC Transformation Programme earlier today.

On July 9, TNB announced the completion of its acquisition of a 70% stake in Jimah East Power Sdn Bhd (JEP) from cash-strapped state-owned strategic investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), for RM46.98 million.

CIMB Research in a recent report said TNB’s share price has underperformed the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KL Composite Index and local peers by some 9% since May this year.

The research house also said it appeared that the underperformance was due to concerns of the utility giant overpaying for 1MDB assets.

“TNB has lost RM12 billion in market capitalisation since May, as its share price fell from RM14.36 on May 1 to RM12.28 on Monday (Aug 3). Although the broader stock market also suffered a setback during this period, TNB still underperformed its local peers and the market index by 9%.

"This under-performance alone took more than RM7.5 billion off TNB’s market cap,” the research house had said.