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Malaysia's Khazanah sells stakes worth $1.4 bln, including in Alibaba

Mon, 25th Nov 2019 10:46

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Malaysia's sovereign wealth
fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd has sold stakes worth 5.66 billion
ringgit ($1.36 billion) in seven foreign firms including Alibaba
Group Holding Ltd in the first 16 months of the current
government, a minister said.

Khazanah, which made its first loss in a decade
last year, has been under pressure to raise funds for the
debt-laden government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who
took office in May last year.

The fund has sold an undisclosed portion of its stake in
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba worth 2.23 billion ringgit. It
was not immediately clear how large a stake it had in Alibaba,
but its total overseas investments were around 14% of its total
holdings.

Khazanah has exited companies including BDO Unibank Inc
of the Philippines, London-based fashion retailer
Farfetch, Indian tech firm Infosys Ltd and
poultry company PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia Tbk.

"Seeing that Khazanah does not receive any fund injection
from external sources for its investments, the proceeds from the
disposals are the main resource for new investments," Economic
Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said in a written
parliamentary reply last Tuesday.

Khazanah announced a plan earlier this year to deliver more
funds to the government by pruning stakes in non-strategic
assets and curbing its offshore presence.

Hit by higher impairments and lower dividend income,
Khazanah posted a loss of 6.3 billion ringgit last year. The
realisable asset value of Khazanah's portfolio fell 13% to 136
billion ringgit last year.

The fund is targeting a pretax profit this year of at least
5 billion ringgit - the highest in eight years.

Khazanah wants to quadruple its foreign investments to
60%-70% of its total portfolio over the next decade and beyond
to reduce exposure to domestic risks.

($1 = 4.1700 ringgit)
(Reporting by Liz Lee; editing by David Evans)

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