This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 8, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd saw a 10.45% stake changed hands off-market for a total of RM182.9 million, or RM1.55 per share — a 13% premium over yesterday’s closing of RM1.37.

The block of 118 million shares was transacted in a single direct deal on Monday.

The convenient store operator’s share price has not traded at the RM1.55 level since May this year.

There has yet to be any filing on Bursa Malaysia related to the traded shares and it is not known which parties were involved in the share transactions as at press time.

However, it is worth noting that the two largest shareholders in the group are Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun with a 23.86% direct stake and the Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar with a 15.52% stake.

Besides the two individuals, no other shareholder holds a more than 10% stake in the company.

In August last year, the Sultan of Johor emerged as the second-largest individual shareholder in the company with an 8.438% stake and has been steadily increasing his stake in the company.

Two months later, he raised his stake to 9.83% after acquiring an additional 432,000 shares in the group.