KUALA LUMPUR: Khazanah Nasional Bhd bought a 15% equity stake in ACE Market-listed Aemulus Corp Bhd through its wholly-owned unit Bombalai Hill Ventures Sdn Bhd. 

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Penang-based semiconductor company Aemelus said Bombalai Hill Ventures had subscribed to 65.83 million shares from its share placement last Friday. However, the transaction price was not unveiled in the filing. 

Khazanah is currently the second-largest shareholder of Aemulus after the latter’s chief executive officer Ng Sang Beng who holds 17.85% and executive director Yeoh Chee Keong (11.77%).

Speaking to the media after the listing ceremony on Tuesday, Ng said he expects the current slowdown in the semiconductor industry to be “short-lived”.

“Yes, I am worried about the slowdown in the semiconductor industry, but after talking to suppliers, I think it is short-term. It doesn’t worry the company as a whole,” he said. 

The shares bought days before Khazanah chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also prime minister, announced that an additional RM20 billion would be injected into ValueCap Sdn Bhd, in which the government investment fund has a stake to support the local market by investing in undervalued stocks. 

Aemulus posted a net profit of RM8.03 million for the financial year ended Sept 30, 2014, compared with RM1 million in the previous financial year. Its revenue more than doubled to RM23.3 million from RM10 million the year before. 

For the nine months ended June 30, Aemulus achieved a net profit of RM6.97 million on a revenue of RM23.8 million. Earnings per share was at 1.99 sen. 

On its maiden trading day on Tuesday, Aemulus’ share price closed at 39.5 sen, a hefty 41% premium to its issue price of 28 sen, with some 92.26 million shares traded. Yesterday, its share price dropped 1.5 sen or 3.8% to 38 sen, with a market capitalisation of RM164.57 million. 

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on September 18, 2015.