Temasek sells 1.85% stake in Singapore Airlines, remains top investor

By Selena Li and Yantoultra Ngui

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's state investor Temasek is selling around S$400 million ($295.92 million) worth of shares, or a 1.85% stake, in the country's national carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA), according to a term sheet seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

The shares are priced between S$7.202 and S$7.283 per share, the sheet shows, representing a 2.89% and 3.97% discount to the last close of S$7.50 on Wednesday.

Temasek will continue to be a major shareholder in SIA with a 53.5% stake, according to Reuters' calculations.

Citi is the sole bookrunner on the share sale, the term sheet showed.

Citi declined to comment.

"As an active investor, we regularly reshape and rebalance our portfolio to deliver sustainable returns over the long term," Juliet Teo, Temasek's Head of Transportation & Logistics, said in an emailed statement in response to Reuters query on Wednesday.

"We are committed to the long-term success of SIA and continue to maintain a majority stake in it," she added.

SIA announced last month a record-high profit of S$2.16 billion for the year ended March 31, after posting losses for the past three years, and said it was off to a strong start with higher bookings to China, Japan and South Korea as pandemic curbs ended globally.

Shares of SIA have jumped almost 36% so far this year.

($1 = 1.3517 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Selena Li in Hong Kong and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore, Editing by Louise Heavens)