KUALA LUMPUR (April 29): Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), both of which are in Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s strategic investment portfolio, have outperformed most heavyweight blue chips on Bursa Malaysia in terms of share price performance.

Despite the recent global rout, TNB’s foreign shareholding has dropped marginally to 16.94% from 18.42% at end-2019.

The utility giant’s share price has dropped 4.85% since the start of the year compared to other companies in Khazanah’s portfolio, for instance Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), which is down by 35.6%, UEM Sunrise Bhd (39.7%) and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (33.2%).

Given its resilient share price, some quarters see that TNB could be one stock that Khazanah might intend to trim its stake further, given that the federal government is counting on government-linked institutions to help finance the economic stimulus package to mitigate the adverse impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.

In terms of valuation, TNB is trading at a trailing 12-month price-earnings ratio (PER) of 15.22 times, compared with 16.64 times at the beginning of this year. The utility stock is trading slightly higher than its five-year average PER of 14.14 times.

Coincidentally, Khazanah sold 85 million shares, or a 1.5% stake, in TNB last Friday, according to a filing with Bursa Malaysia. However, the transaction price was not revealed in the filing. 

According to Bloomberg data, some 85.17 million shares were crossed off-market last Friday, representing 1.5% of the company's total 5.69 billion shares. The shares were transacted in 28 blocks, worth a total of RM1.008 billion, via a direct business transaction.

Khazanah remains the single largest shareholder of TNB with a 25.77% stake or 1.46 billion shares. 

The shares were transacted at RM11.87 a share, a 2.38% discount to last Friday’s closing price of RM12.16. 

TNB's share price closed unchanged at RM12.10 today, with 3.6 million shares traded.