KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 9): Berjaya Corp Bhd founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan cut his stake in Stemlife Bhd to 8.99% following a take-over offer for the stem-cell specialist.

Cordlife Group Ltd is offering to buy the remaining shares in Stemlife for 45 sen a share. The offer turned unconditional last Monday (Dec 7) when Cordlife upped its Stemlife stake to 50.03%.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia today, Stemlife said Tan sold 2.61 million shares on the open market last Thursday (Dec 3). Following the sale, Tan still owned 22.25 million shares or 8.99% in Stemlife.

His Stemlife stake is held via Juara Sejati Sdn Bhd, which directly holds the Stemlife shares. Berjaya Corp is the ultimate holding company of Juara Sejati.

Tan's current stake in Stemlife compares with 10.045% on July 1 this year.

According to Stemlife's bourse announcements, which date back as far as 2006, Tan had emerged as a major shareholder in Stemlife with a 12.5% stake on Oct 18 that year.

Juara Sejati had then acquired 20.63 million shares on the open market and via off-market transaction.

At 12:30pm today, Stemlife shares settled unchanged at 44.5 sen for a market value of RM110.1 million. The stock saw 381,600 shares transacted.

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