KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 11): Berjaya Assets Bhd (BAssets) has increased its stake in 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd to 4.63% after acquiring a 0.34% stake from the open market for an average price of RM1.54 per share or a total of RM5.72 million.

BAssets said the acquisitions enabled the group to increase its investment in 7-Eleven Malaysia, which operates the 7-Eleven convenience store chain in the country.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, BAssets said its wholly-owned subsidiary Sublime Cartel Sdn Bhd had acquired a total of 3.72 million shares in 7-Eleven Malaysia during the period from Nov 13, 2017 to Jan 10, 2018. This brings BAssets' total shareholding to 51.38 million shares in the retail chain operator.

"The cash consideration of the acquisitions was at the prevailing market prices of 7-Eleven Malaysia shares at the time of acquisitions. The acquisitions were funded from internal funds of the BAssets group," said BAssets.

Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) founder and executive chairman Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun is a major shareholder of BAssets and 7-Eleven Malaysia. The tycoon's daughter Chryseis Tan Sheik Ling and son Morvin Tan U-Jiang are executive directors of BAssets. Chan Kien Sing is a common director of BAssets and 7-Eleven Malaysia.

BAssets shares closed down 0.5 sen or 1.15% at 43 sen today, with 790,300 shares done, bringing a market capitalisation of RM1.1 billion; while 7-Eleven Malaysia's share price ended the day unchanged at RM1.54, with 137,300 shares traded, valuing it at RM1.71 billion.