MAHB to finalise Hyderabad airport stake sale by year-end
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) expects to conclude the disposal of its stake in GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd in India by the end of this year.
Acting chief executive officer Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin said negotiations are ongoing.
“In the last few years, we have exited our investment in New Delhi.
“Earlier this year, we announced we would exit Hyderabad and we hope to close the deal by the end of this year,” he said after signing a memorandum of understanding with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority to explore areas of collaboration.
Early this year, the airport operator had announced its intention to sell its 11% equity interest in GMR Hyderabad for RM295.3mil to the airport’s majority shareholder, GMR Airports Ltd.
In 2015, MAHB disposed of its 10% stake in Delhi International Airport Pte Ltd for RM292.6mil, also to GMR Airports.
On whether MAHB was eyeing new invest- ments in India, Raja Azmi said it would assess any opportunities abroad, including in India, on a case-by-case basis.
He said potential business models included major equity investment or small scale stakeholding and facility management services.
“There is nothing concrete yet but we will need to evaluate and determine which business model we want to get into for overseas investments.
“There are three potential business models – (major) equity investment like what we did in Turkey, smaller investment like Hyderabad, and operations and maintenance like we did for the Doha Airport,” he said.
On the MAHB-run airport in Turkey, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, Raja Azmi remains sanguine that the airport would turn profitable within the next two to three years.
The airport is expected to register 34 million passenger movements this year.