MAHB’s Mohamed Rastam could head to RHB

MAHB’s Mohamed Rastam could head to RHB

This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 17, 2024 - June 23, 2024

MALAYSIA Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) (KL:AIRPORT) acting CEO Mohamed Rastam Shahrom is leaving the airport operator and joining RHB Bank Bhd (KL:RHBBANK) as its chief financial officer, sources familiar with the matter tell The Edge.

It is understood that Mohamed Rastam, who has been acting CEO at MAHB since October last year, has been contemplating the move to RHB, Malaysia’s fourth-largest lender by assets, since April this year. However, he made his decision only recently.

“He has informed the board of his intention to leave for RHB, but I am not sure if he has tendered his resignation to MAHB,” a source familiar with MAHB says.

Mohamed Rastam, a chartered accountant, is a seasoned finance person, having garnered more than 20 years’ experience in the field. He was the chief financial officer of MAHB before being nudged up to his current role when Datuk Seri Iskandar Mizal Mahmood left MAHB in October last year. Prior to joining MAHB, Mohamed Rastam was the chief financial officer of property developer UEM Sunrise Bhd (KL:UEMS).

At RHB, Mohamed Rastam will take over from Phuah Shok Cheng, who was appointed the acting group chief financial officer in January this year, after Nik Rizal Kamil Nik Ibrahim Kamil left at the end of December 2023.

Another source says that Mohamed Rastam was looking to leave earlier but when Iskandar Mizal left, he was thrust into the CEO’s role.

It is understood that one of the candidates to take over from Mohamed Rastam could be Datuk Mohd Izani Ghani, who has been the managing director of UEM Group Bhd since August 2019.

Mohd Izani could also come in as the managing director and CEO of the airport operator. He was a director of MAHB from March 2011 to February 2019.

UEM Group has a 33% stake in MAHB, having surfaced as a substantial shareholder in mid-May after Khazanah Nasional Bhd transferred its shares to UEM Group. UEM Group is wholly owned by Khazanah and is the sovereign wealth fund’s infrastructure arm.

The transfer of shares from Khazanah to UEM Group came after Khazanah, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Abu Dhabi Investment Arm (ADIA) and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) formed a special-purpose vehicle — Gateway Development Alliance Sdn Bhd — and sought to privatise MAHB at RM11 a share, or for an equity value of RM18.4 billion, which translates into a price-earnings ratio of 37.7 times MAHB’s audited consolidated earnings per share for the financial year ended December 2023.

Plans are for Khazanah and EPF to hold 70% equity interest in Gateway Development Alliance while ADIA and GIP would own the remaining 30%.

While the offer price of RM11 is just a mere 60 sen or 5.77% premium to MAHB’s last traded price of RM10.40 before the offer was received, it does represent a 15.2% premium to the prevailing three-month volume-weighted average price of RM9.55. It also implies a 49.5% year-to-date gain, based on the closing price of RM7.36 per share at the end of December 2023. In a nutshell, there was a run on MAHB’s stock when word of the privatisation surfaced.

In March this year, MAHB, which operates 39 airports and landing strips in the country, signed new operating and land lease agreements that extend the airport operator’s concession to February 2069, from 2034 previously.

The new operating and land lease agreements offer MAHB “flexibility” to pursue the strategic investments needed, including partnering with any external parties to improve the capacity, facilities and infrastructure of the airports, the company noted.

MAHB has been having issues with its aerotrain system, leaving passengers stranded, as well as its baggage handling system at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport — among a whole host of other problems.

At its close of RM9.92 last Friday, MAHB had a market capitalisation of RM16.55 billion.

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