KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 15): Key Alliance Group Bhd has emerged as a new substantial shareholder of ACE Market-listed Macpie Bhd after buying a 5.91% stake or 55.96 million shares in it in the open market.

In a bourse filing today, Key Alliance said it spent a total of RM5.34 million to acquire the shares between Sept 6 and Sept 13.

“The cash consideration of RM5.34 million for the investment was based on the prevailing market price of Macpie at the time of purchase and was funded via internally-generated funds,” it added.

Macpie, which is involved in event management as well as retail and distribution management, saw its net loss widen to RM8.86 million for the financial year ended June 30, 2021 (FY21) from RM8.14 million in FY20, as revenue halved to RM31.79 million from RM64.93 million. The net loss was mainly due to impairment losses and its event management segment being adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In its filing today, Key Alliance said the reopening of the economy after Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 is expected to lift the economy in 2022. “The reopening will potentially see a flood of events and concerts and the revitalisation of Macpie’s event business,” it said.

Additionally, Key Alliance added that Macpie’s use of cloud services and storage as well as bandwidth enhancements and other complementary ICT-based services will directly benefit its own cloud services and IT segment.

Macpie shares closed half a sen higher at 11 sen apiece, valuing it at RM104.11 million. Meanwhile, Key Alliance closed unchanged at three sen, valuing the group at RM76.63 million.