KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 17): CIMB Group Holdings Bhd’s foreign shareholding increased to 24.9% in January 2022 from 24.7% in December 2021, according to the financial services provider’s latest updates.

The latest reported figure was the highest since May 2020, when CIMB's foreign shareholding stood at 25.6%, according to the updates.

CIMB’s foreign shareholding updates, which date back as far as January 2010, show that the group’s foreign shareholding was at its highest at 42.9% in June 2011 while the lowest reading at 20.3% was recorded in May 2021.

At a glance, CIMB’s foreign shareholding had risen steadily to the latest-report level at 24.9% in January 2022 since May 2021.

CIMB, however, did not elaborate on its monthly foreign shareholding changes.

Bursa Malaysia’s research arm Bursa Digital Research said in its latest market update report on Monday (Feb 14) that in January 2022, CIMB shares registered the fourth highest foreign net purchase value at RM127 million among Bursa-listed companies.

“[For CIMB,] this was the eighth consecutive month with foreign inflow, supporting the outflow from local institutions and local retailers throughout the period.

"The net purchase of RM127 million was slightly higher than Dec 21 (+RM104 million),” Bursa said.

According to CIMB, Malaysian institutional investors Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) and Retirement Fund (Inc) are major shareholders of CIMB. 

Retirement Fund (Inc) is also known as Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP).

As at Jan 31, 2022, Khazanah owned a 25.7% stake in CIMB, the EPF had a 15.2% stake while PNB and KWAP held 11.8% and 6.3% respectively, according to CIMB.

On Thursday (Feb 17), CIMB’s share price slipped two sen or 0.35% to RM5.63, giving the group a market capitalisation of about RM57.54 billion.

CIMB has 10.22 billion issued shares, according to its Bursa filings.