REPORTS that sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd is seeking to sell its stake in a joint-venture company with Singapore’s Temasek Holdings has been refuted, said the Business Times.

M+S is a 60:40 joint-venture company with Temasek, which is the developer of two iconic mixed-development projects in Singapore – the Duo in the Ophir-Rochor area and Marina One in Marina Bay – worth a combined SG$11 billion (RM32.9 billion) in gross development value.

The Business Times quoted a source as saying that officials from both parties had not held talks on the matter, nor was the sale of Khazanah’s stake on the cards at this juncture.

“There is no such thing going on. It doesn’t make sense (to do that) at this point,” a Malaysian source told the Singapore news site.

“It would make more sense to do it (the sale) once the office asset has a stabilised yield,” added the source.

A Khazanah spokesman said the company will not issue any statements on the matter.

Rumours that Khazanah was looking to dispose of some of its investments had repeatedly made the rounds following Pakatan Harapan’s bid to trim down the government’s RM1 trillion debt and restructure its state-linked funds.

One market observer told The Business Times that Khazanah would likely sell its stake in the Temasek JV at “some point”, but not now.

“After booking the development risk, Khazanah may want to hold out until it books the sales of residential and income stream from commercial (office space), which are only just beginning.”

In 2010, three plots of former Malayan Railway land and three additional plots in Bukit Timah were exchanged for four land parcels in Marina South and two parcels in Ophir-Rochor, giving rise to the two M+S developments.

Last month, Khazanah’s entire board resigned to make way for a “smooth and orderly transition under the new government”.

Shahril Ridza Ridzuan, who had helmed the country’s Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for the past five years, was picked to succeed Azman Mokhtar as managing director. – August 24, 2018.