KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Mokhzani Mahathir (pic) has disposed of a 6.4% stake in Sapura Energy Bhd on Tuesday, thus ceasing to be the company’s substantial shareholder, a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Thursday showed.
The oil and gas services provider (formerly SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd) said Mokhzani’s private vehicle Khasera Baru Ltd, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, had disposed of the 384.97 million shares.
Based on Sapura Energy’s 2017 annual report, Khasera previously held 605 million shares representing a 10.1% stake. In addition, Mokhzani himself has a direct stake of 0.16% as well as deemed interest of 10.18% (the remainder was via Kencana Capital Sdn Bhd).
This means that his direct and indirect stake has been reduced to about 4.7%.
Based on Tuesday’s closing price of RM1.50 per share, the shares that were sold have a value of RM577.45mil.
StarBiz reported last week that Mokhzani was looking to sell his entire stake in Sapura Energy via private placement and had given Maybank Investment Bank the mandate.
Mokhzani has been paring down his stake in Sapura Energy over the years. Sources told StarBiz that he does not foresee the oil and gas industry turning around anytime soon, and would rather deploy the capital into new industries.
In February 2014, four months before the collapse of crude oil prices, Mokhzani via Khasera Baru sold 190.3 million shares in Sapura Energy (then SapuraKencana Petroleum) at a price of RM4.30 apiece. This gave them proceeds of RM820mil.