KUALA LUMPUR (June 6): Shares of Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd continued to surge for the second day this morning, as it went up as much as 13.13% after news broke that its biggest shareholder T. Ananda Krishnan is considering taking the company private.

At 11.45am, the stock was trading up 21 sen or 13.12% at RM1.81 after an active morning with 6.72 million shares traded.

Yesterday, the stock jumped 12.7% in one day to close at RM1.60.

Bloomberg today reported, citing sources, that Krishnan has revived deliberations about a buyout of the company after its stock recently dropped to a record low.

"Krishnan has been speaking to potential advisers about funding options and is reaching out to some major investors to gauge their interest, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private," it said.

UOB Kay Hian Malaysia Retail Research Team said the potential move is not something new, noting that Astro was privatised in June 2012, and thereafter re-listed in October 2012 at RM3 per share.

"Given current attractive valuation at 12.3x FY19F PE and above-market yield of 7.3%, we are not ruling out the possibility that Krishnan would consider privatising the company," it wrote in a research note today.

The research team maintained its 'buy' call on Astro with an unchanged target price of RM2.21.