This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 15, 2024 - July 21, 2024
Notable filings
From July 1 to 5, notable filings at Bursa Malaysia-listed companies included those of Siab Holdings Bhd (KL:SIAB), which saw a 12.85% equity block change hands.
According to stock exchange filings, Wong Yih Ming, Chu Yee Hong and Yap Kek Siung emerged as substantial shareholders after Mbuild Venture Sdn Bhd bought 200 million shares on June 27. The 12.85% stake is part of the consideration of Siab’s acquisition of shares in Taghill Projects Sdn Bhd. Subsequent to the share subscription, Wong, 49, managing director of Taghill, was appointed as an executive director of Siab on July 2.
On July 18 last year, Siab announced its intention to acquire Taghill for RM122 million, to be fully satisfied through a combination of RM96 million in cash and RM26 million via the issuance of 200 million Siab shares at 13 sen each to Taghill’s vendors — Wong, Chu and Yap.
Elsewhere, at HB Global Ltd (KL:HBGLOB), its former executive chairman Keh Chuan Seng ceased to be a substantial shareholder in the frozen food manufacturer after his shareholding fell to 4.9%, just below the 5% threshold for substantial shareholding.
From July 2 to 5, Keh offloaded 69.95 million shares, or an 8.9% stake, in the group via direct business transactions at undisclosed prices, filings showed. Based on the trading price of HB Global during the period under review, Keh could be receiving about RM9.75 million for his stake.
He resigned from HB Global’s board on Feb 22, after serving as chairman for 2½ years. He first emerged as HB Global’s largest shareholder in July 2020 after acquiring a 32.05% stake from the group’s founder and CEO Shen Hengbao via an off-market transaction.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong-listed Asia Television Holdings Ltd has exited property developer Yong Tai Bhd (KL:YONGTAI) after disposing of its entire 27.36 million shares, or 6.44%, over several tranches.
According to a filing with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, Asia Television said Full Winning disposed of its stake in Yong Tai at an average price of 35 sen per share and that the aggregate gross sale proceeds of the disposal were RM9.58 million.
Notable movements
The strong share price movement of RHB Bank Bhd (KL:RHBBANK) has not gone unnoticed. On April 12, the counter touched a two-year high of RM5.77 but has since come off, following the release of its earnings for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024 (1QFY2024).
Between July 1 and 5, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) sold 17.47 million shares in RHB Bank; and the Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) offloaded three million shares. As at July 3, EPF held a 39.8% stake in RHB and KWAP, a 4.8% stake. In the same period, EPF also disposed of 23.065 million shares in CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and 5.2 million shares in AMMB Holdings Bhd.
CTOS Digital Bhd (KL:CTOS) has seen some interest of late from government-linked investment companies. Between July 1 and 5, filings with the local bourse showed that EPF bought 7.73 million shares in the company and KWAP acquired 1.97 million shares.
Shares in CTOS have been on a roller-coaster ride this year. Its share price traded as high as RM1.52 and as low as RM1.25 this year. It has since recovered to close at RM1.45 last Thursday (July 11).
On July 9, the Court of Appeal’s (CoA) decision to overturn a defamation case in favour of a unit of CTOS affirmed its legal right to publish credit scores. In a bourse filing, CTOS said the CoA had also unanimously ruled that credit reporting agencies did not owe a duty of care in common law, and that they may formulate and publish credit scores as part of their business of credit reporting, under the provisions of the Credit Reporting Agencies Act.
In a report on July 10, Kenanga Research said the development could eliminate any existing doubt and ambiguity that could be posed from interpreting the Act in future cases. The research house upgraded CTOS to “outperform” from “underperform”, revising its target price to RM2, from RM1.15 previously, with unchanged forecasts.
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