KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): Berjaya Assets Bhd (BAssets) said it is unaware of plans to privatise its associate company 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd.

BAssets said this in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today in response to an article in The Edge weekly that the company is looking into privatising the convenience store chain.

“The board of Berjaya Assets Bhd wishes to clarify that as at the date of this announcement, the company is not aware of any proposal in respect of the abovementioned privatisation,” the company said.

The article entitled “Privatisation on the Cards for 7-Eleven Malaysia?” in the weekly’s Jan 22-28 edition quoted sources as saying that BAssets — controlled by tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan — is contemplating the corporate exercise, and that the diversified group is likely to continue increasing its stake in 7-Eleven to double digits from 5.11% as at Jan 16.

Tan controls BAssets with a 59.36% stake. Including BAssets’ stake in 7-Eleven, he also has a total equity stake of 42.46% in the convenience store chain.

Shares of 7-Eleven rose 1 sen or 0.65% to RM1.56 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.92 billion.