Malaysia’s TIME dotCom (TdC) has reportedly divested a portion of its stake in local mobile network operator DiGi Telecommunications, according to The Edge Markets. TdC is understood to have sold some 49.9 million shares, representing a 0.64% stake in DiGi.Com, the owner of DiGi Telecommunications, for a total of MYR310.9 million (USD84.66 million). With the shares said to have been sold through private placement, via a bookbuilding process to eligible institutional or sophisticated investors, it has been claimed the disposal was made to allow TdC to reallocate capital resource for working capital purposes.
As noted in TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, DiGi Telecommunications is wholly owned by holding company DiGi.Com, which in turn is 49% owned by Norway’s Telenor Group, the maximum allowed under Malaysia’s foreign shareholding rules. The only other companies to hold more than 5% in the mobile network operator at 31 March 2014 were Employees Provident Fund Board, which had 11.19% of DiGi’s stock at that date, and Skim Amanah Saham Bumiputera, which held 5.44%. Also of note, at that date TdC had a 1.29% holding in DiGi.