KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 22): Asiamet Education Group Bhd (AEGB) rose three sen or 17% at Bursa Malaysia's afternoon market close after AEGB's major shareholder SMR Education Sdn Bhd (SESB) placed out 210 million AEGB shares to institutional investors.

SMRT Holdings Bhd, which wholly owns SESB, announced this to Bursa Malaysia yesterday. SMRT said SESB had placed out the AEGB shares to Dayatahan Sdn Bhd, Lembaga Tabung Haji, Kenanga Private Equity Sdn Bhd and Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd.

SMRT said: "On behalf of SMRT, the board wishes to announce that SESB had entered into placement agreements with various third party investors to place out 210 million consideration shares, representing 16.9% of the existing issued shares of AEGB, resulting in a public shareholding spread of 25.4% for AEGB."

At Bursa Malaysia today, AEGB settled at 20.5 sen at 12:30pm with some 37 million shares changing hands.

AEGB was Bursa Malaysia's third most-active entity.