This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 3, 2022 - October 9, 2022
Notable filings
For the week of Sept 19 to 23, notable shareholding changes at Bursa Malaysia-listed companies included those at Transocean Holdings Bhd.
Billionaire businessman Tan Sri Surin Upatkoon’s wholly-owned private company Microplus Elite Sdn Bhd ceased being a substantial shareholder in the Main Market-listed transport and logistics provider after it disposed of three million shares via a direct business transaction on Sept 22.
Upatkoon, a Thai national, had acquired Microplus Elite from businessman Tan Sri Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh on Nov 9 last year, giving him an indirect stake of 18.43%, or 12 million shares, in Transocean. The tycoon is known for his investments in numbers forecast operator Magnum Corp Bhd and insurance group MPHB Capital Bhd.
Transocean recently reported a higher net profit of RM784,000 in the first six months of the financial year ending Dec 31, 2022, compared with just RM117,000 a year earlier, on the back of a 43.6% increase in revenue to RM13.36 million.
Over at SEG International Bhd (SEGi), private firm Pinnacle Heritage Solutions Sdn Bhd trimmed its stake in the higher education provider after it disposed of 13.8 million shares on Sept 21, leaving it with 842.46 million shares.
Pinnacle Heritage, controlled by private equity group Navis Capital Partners, now holds a 36.38% stake in SEGi. Group managing director Tan Sri Clement Hii, who also has interest in Pinnacle Heritage, has a direct stake of 32.37% in SEGi.
The group made a slightly lower net profit of RM20.59 million in the first six months of the financial year ending Dec 31, 2022, compared with RM21.08 million a year earlier, despite a marginal 0.7% increase in revenue to RM108.36 million. It said it has been able to maintain its profits despite the pandemic in the last few years mainly because of lower operating costs and transformation initiatives to manage the challenging times. Its earnings are derived mainly from education and training activities.
Ancom Nylex Bhd executive chairman Datuk Siew Ka Wei, who has been accumulating the shares of the integrated chemicals provider in the last few months, acquired another 25,000 shares on the open market on Sept 15 and 19, raising his stake to 14.27% or 124.43 million shares.
The group, formerly known as Ancom Bhd, reported bumper earnings in the financial year ended May 31, 2022. Net profit rose 187% to RM68.18 million on the back of a 31% rise in revenue to RM2.01 billion from RM1.54 billion.
On Sept 19, it appointed former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun and chartered accountant Christina Foo as independent non-executive directors.
Notable movements
Bioalpha Holdings Bhd, whose shares have recently been trading at their lowest levels in over two years, saw its founder and managing director William Hon Tian Kok cease to be a substantial shareholder after he sold 68 million shares in an off-market transaction on Sept 20.
Hon, who had a 10.44% stake as at end-June, had progressively been reducing his holding in the ACE Market-listed company that makes and sells health supplements. He is now left with a 3.65% stake or 50.35 million shares.
Bioalpha slipped to a net loss of RM11.6 million in the first half of its financial year ending Dec 31, 2022, compared with a net profit of RM3.03 million a year earlier. Its share price has halved over the course of this year to 9.5 sen on Sept 28, giving the company a market value of RM130.9 million.
Meanwhile, Citaglobal Bhd, whose shares have shot up 18.4% over the last month to close at 22.5 sen on Sept 28, saw Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah acquire 32.1 million of the Main Market company’s shares on Sept 15.
This raises his stake to 12.44% (132.12 million shares) from about 9% before. The King had first emerged as a substantial shareholder in September 2019.
Brothers Tengku Datuk Seri Uzir Tengku Ubaidillah and Tengku Datuk Indera Zubir Tengku Ubaidillah — Citaglobal’s executive vice-chairman and non-executive director respectively — had resigned from their roles on Sept 20. Tengku Zubir had also sold 700,000 shares on Sept 20, leaving him with a 0.19% stake (2.07 million shares).
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