KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 28): Palm oil player Kretam Holdings Bhd saw its chief executive officer cum non-independent executive director Datuk Lim Nyuk Sang @ Freddy Lim increased his direct equity stake in the company to over 60%.

According to Kretam (fundamental: 1.25; valuation: 2.4)’s filing with Bursa Malaysia this evening, Lim had on Jan 27 acquired 11.84 million shares or a 0.63% stake, which raised his direct shareholding to 60.25% or 1.13 billion shares.

He also holds an indirect interest of 2.57% in the company.

In January alone, Lim accumulated 28.79 million shares or an additional 1.45% stake in Kretam, costing him about RM13.34 million based on Kretam’s filings with the exchange this month.

Lim is the brother of Priceworth International Bhd’s founder Lim Nyuk Foh, who ceased to be a substantial shareholder of Kretam since early July last year.

Kretam’s share price fell 1.5 sen or 3.09% to 47 sen today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM853.13 million.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)