Yesterday, 27.75 million DiGi.Com Bhd shares were sold by Time dotCom Bhd (TdC), for RM604.95mil or RM21.80 per share.

It was put forward by TdC, in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, that the shares have been disposed off by its unit Hakikat Pasti Sdn Bhd.

A sum of 55.25 million DiGi shares were held in aggregate by TdC and its subsidiaries before the disposal, representing .1% of the issued and paid-up capital of DiGi, as on Aug 18. Hakikat Pasti acquired 27.75 million of these shares, while TT dotCom Sdn Bhd, another wholly-owned subsidiary of TdC held the remaining 27.5 million.

It should be noted the TdC, after the disposal, has 27.5 million DiGi shares, representing about 3.5% equity interest in DiGi.

It was on a 'willing buyer-willing seller' basis through a private placement exercise that the sale price of RM21.80 per DiGi share was determined.

TdC said: "It represents a discount of 0.9% to the five-day volume weighted average market price of DiGi shares up to and including Aug 25 of RM22. The original cost of investment for the disposal shares was RM597.22mil or RM21.52 per DiGi share."

It should be noted that 22.5 million DiGi shares, for RM463.5mil cash, were disposed off by Hakikat Pasti earlier this year.

TdC confirmed that it was in November 2007 that it first held the disposed shares, for which it received an aggregate net dividend income of RM68.27mil, or RM2.46 per share.

TdC said: "The net proceeds from the disposal of RM602.6mil will be utilised to repay the bank borrowings of the TdC group estimated at RM552.7mil and the balance for working capital purposes."

It added: "The disposal will result in an estimated gain on disposal of RM5.33mil to the TdC group for the financial year ending Dec 31."