Nov 9, 5:49 AM EST
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, (AP) -- Singapore state investment arm
Temasek has sold part of its shares in Malaysian lender Southern
Bank, cutting its stake at a time when the bank is seeking to fend
off a takeover bid, officials said Wednesday.
Temasek spokeswoman Eva Ho said the company has sold off 40 million
shares, or a 2.6 percent equity in Southern Bank, which Malaysian
state-owned CIMB Bhd. is seeking to acquire.
She declined to reveal the price or the buyers.
"We actively manage our portfolio. We are open at all times to
increasing, holding or reducing our stakes in our portfolio
companies when it makes sense for us to do so," Ho said.
The sale came just a month after Temasek revealed it owned a total
7.58 percent of Southern Bank through a direct stake of 4.36
percent and indirectly through its subsidiaries, making it an
important player in the hotly contested takeover.
Southern Bank is resisting a merger bid from bigger rival CIMB, a
unit of Malaysia's second top banking group Bumiputra-Commerce
Holdings. CIMB is pursuing merger talks with two key shareholders
in Southern Bank, despite opposition from Southern's board of
directors who wants the country's No.9 lender to remain
independent.
In a move to make it more difficult to mount a hostile takeover,
Southern Bank has been buying its own shares from the market.
Temasek, which has an investment portfolio valued at $103 billion
Singapore dollars (US$175 billion, euro 149.7 billion) has been
buying companies across Asia in a drive to be a major Asian
institutional investor.
It owns banks in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, South Korea and China.
In Singapore, it controls DBS Group, Southeast Asia's biggest
lender in terms of assets.