Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), the operator of the key air gateways in Malaysia, has been delisted following a sale process that saw the Gateway Development Alliance (GDA) consortium take control of the entity.

As far back as May last year, GDA—led by Khazanah Nasional Berhad Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Malaysia’s premier retirement savings fund—had made a pre-conditional voluntary offer to acquire all the shares in MAHB not already owned by the consortium. At the time, GDA had a stake of just over 41%.

The mid-May 2024 offer price was Malaysian Ringgit MYR11.00 (USD2.48) per share, the highest price since MAHB’s initial public offering in November 1999. The offer valued MAHB at MYR18.4 billion (USD4.16 billion), reflecting a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of over 6% in share price over 25 years. With a high acceptance level from shareholders of more than 95% by January, MAHB’s board said the offer had become unconditional.

On February 12, GDA—whose international partners include Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) now part of BlackRock, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) another sovereign wealth fund—acquired 1.64 billion shares in MAHB, or 98.7% of the business, according to Malaysian national news agency, Bernama. The acquisition was made at the original offer price.

The shares stopped trading on February 19 at MYR10.90 in preparation for the delisting on February 25. With the operator of 39 Malaysian gateways—including its biggest assets of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) and Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport (SAW) in Türkiye—now in the hands of GDA, what are the prospects of the business, going forwards? 

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