KUALA LUMPUR (April 13): Affin Bank Bhd said its largest shareholder Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) has divested a 4.95% stake in the bank to State Financial Secretary Sarawak, via a direct business transaction on Thursday (April 13).
This confirms a report by The Edge Malaysia in its April 3-9 edition, which quoted sources as saying that LTAT was in talks to sell a stake of about 5% in Affin Bank to a Sarawak government entity.
In a filing to the stock exchange, Affin said LTAT sold the stake comprising 112.56 million shares for a cash consideration of RM221.74 million or RM1.97 per share.
The sale is understood to be tied to LTAT’s proposed privatisation of Boustead Holdings Bhd, as the fund is seeking to reduce its shareholding in Affin Bank to below 50% post-Boustead privatisation, from the indicative 54.1%, to avoid having to obtain Bank Negara Malaysia’s approval.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2022, Affin Bank's net profit more than doubled to RM1.3 billion from RM526.93 million in the previous year, following the RM1.42 billion divestment of its 63% stake in Affin Hwang Asset Management Bhd last year. Revenue rose 47.12% to RM3.3 billion from RM2.24 billion.
The bank has said it remained cautiously optimistic of its prospects for 2023 as the reopening of the economy following the end of the Covid pandemic had spurred domestic demand and resulted in an improvement in the local labour market.
Of the seven analysts who cover Affin Bank, four have “buy” or “outperform” calls while the remaining three have “neutral” and “hold” calls.
Affin Bank's share price closed 0.5% or one sen higher at RM2.02, valuing the bank at RM4.59 billion.