Published September 30, 2008
KTT slide continues with 27.66% dive
2 days of sales by Kapital Asia wipe $1.4b off its market capitalisation
By SIOW LI SEN

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SHARES of Keppel Telecommunications and Transportation (KTT) continued to plunge yesterday - sinking 27.66 per cent, after Friday's 43.9 per cent dive - on sales by substantial shareholder Kapital Asia Pte Ltd, sources said.

The two days of sales have wiped $1.4 billion off the market capitalisation of KTT, which is more than 80 per cent owned by Keppel Corporation.
The stock ended yesterday at $1.70, down 60 per cent from last Thursday's close of $4.19. Five million shares changed hands yesterday, following the 5.1 million traded last Friday. KTT typically has low liquidity. Often, less than 500,000 shares are transacted in a day.
Hong Kong based-Kapital Asia, owned by Indonesian businessmen with interests in oil and gas, became a substantial shareholder in KTT in 2006, with 7.34 per cent. By July this year, it had increased its holding to 9.27 per cent or 51.136 million shares.
Based on KTT's annual report, Kapital Asia, an investment holding company, is controlled by Agus Anwar and Marcel Tjia.
A call to its office here at Ngee Ann City was taken by a secretary who said 'no comment' before BT even posed a question.
KTT filed changes in stockholding to the Singapore Exchange (SGX) after it received notification from Kapital Asia yesterday that the latter sold 2,658,000 shares on Sept 26 at between $4 and $3.50.
KTT said that the change in percentage level from trades on Friday and yesterday does not exceed one per cent of its voting shares. It added that a possible explanation for the decrease in its share price could be this 'forced selling'.
KTT told SGX that it is not aware of any other reason that could account for the trading and, in particular, the substantial fall in its share price yesterday and on Friday.
KTT's main asset and profit contributor is its 20 per cent stake in telco MobileOne.
Kapital Asia is no stranger to Keppel Corp. In October 2003, KepCorp sold a 28 per cent stake in Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC) to Kapital Asia Company for $180 million. The later changed its name to Satya Capital.
Less than 12 months later, Satya Capital sold its SPC stake to China Aviation Oil (CAO) but the deal soured after CAO almost went bankrupt from US$550 million in trading losses in 2004. Eventually, Satya managed to dispose of the stake in 2006.