KUALA LUMPUR (March 29): Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) is back on investors’ radar, judging by its recent share price rally.

The stock has been heavily traded since the appointment of a non-family member, CEO Abdul Jalil Abdul Rasheed. Now, it has sparked speculation about what Berjaya group’s boss Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s next move will be.

“We will undergo a period of change slowly to ensure we are future-proofed against any external shocks. This means we need to have a balance of businesses from recurring and non-recurring income.

“This means having a rethink about what we want to be and where we want to focus on. We are in a period of consolidation to sweat our assets better and enhance our value. We will not be acquiring any assets for now,” said the 69-year-old founder and executive chairman in an interview with The Star.

“We have established an executive committee (exco) that will consist of myself, (executive deputy chairman) Datuk Seri Robin Tan and Jalil, who will be responsible for the strategic matters of the group,” he disclosed.

Jalil will chair management committees on all operational matters, according to him.

It appears that one of Jalil’s main tasks is to help build investor relationships (IR).

“Jalil will spearhead IR efforts with the investment community. We need to gain back investor confidence and inject good corporate governance and demonstrate to investors that we are indeed a changed company and are undergoing a transformation phase.

“Jalil is an authority on good corporate governance and transparency, and we’d like this to be implemented at BCorp,” said Tan.

There were already close to 200 million shares that changed hands in the first trading hour after the opening bell, making the diversified group the most actively traded counter on Bursa this morning.

BCorp’s shares continued to garner investors’ interest today, reaching a high of 34.5 sen — the highest level since May 2018. At market close, it settled at 33.5 sen, up three sen, with 391.53 million shares transacted.  

The share prices of most of its listed subsidiaries also gained. Berjaya Food Bhd rose five sen to RM1.76; Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd was up three sen to RM2.15; Berjaya Assets Bhd increased two sen to 39 sen; Berjaya Land Bhd (BLand) rose two and half sen to 25.5 sen. However, 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd was down one sen at RM1.32.

BCorp’s shares have surged more than 85%, from a low of 18 sen less than two weeks ago. Worth noting is that BLand’s share price has also shown a steep rise this month, gaining roughly 34% from 19 sen on March 18.

To recap, Tan once made a remark on a massive corporate restructuring in Berjaya group, involving the planned privatisation of 7-Eleven and BLand two years ago. Nonetheless, the board later clarified that it was only the executive chairman’s tentative plan and there was no concrete decision made.

Instead of taking 7-Eleven private, Tan tweaked the plan. The convenience store operator made a takeover offer to privatise Caring Pharmacy Group Bhd in late 2019.

Another asset that has drawn attention is Tan's mobile service provider U Mobile Sdn Bhd, in which he owns 21.6%.

It is known that U Mobile has been mulling over an initial public offering. The Edge reported that the company had appointed CIMB Investment Bank Bhd as its adviser for the exercise. It was targeting a valuation of RM10 billion to RM11 billion, according to several sources familiar with the matter.

Against the backdrop of evolving industry landscape on the rollout of 5G network, some analysts said it may be positive to U Mobile in the competitive operating environment.