Khazanah, EPF are weighing taking Malaysia Airports private, sources say

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd. is set to be privatized as its two biggest shareholders team up with buyout firm Global Infrastructure Partners and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to make a takeover offer for the airport operator. Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd., Employees Provident Fund, GIP and ADIA offered to pay 11 ringgit per share to acquire 67% of the company, according to a Bursa Malaysia filing on Wednesday. That represents a 15% premium to the company’s prevailing three-month volume-weighted average price — a measure of a stock’s valuation — and values Malaysia Airports at 18.4b ringgit ($3.9b). “MAHB’s airport network serves some of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets, which are benefiting from regional economic growth, increased air travel affordability and shifts in consumer spending,” Khadem Alremeithi, executive director of the infrastructure department at ADIA, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, said in a joint statement by the consortium. The announcement confirms a Bloomberg News report earlier Wednesday that Khazanah and EPF were weighing taking Malaysia Airports private. Khazanah and EPF, the nation’s biggest pension fund, will raise their stakes in the airport operator to 40% and 30%, respectively, after the planned takeover, according to the statement. New York-based GIP and ADIA will hold the remaining 30%, it said.<br/>