KUALA LUMPUR (July 3): DRB-HICOM Bhd has clarified today that it did not acquire any stake in Media Prima Bhd.

"DRB-HICOM Bhd refers to a media report stating that it has acquired an 11% stake in listed media company Media Prima Bhd (MPB), and may acquire another 8% of MPB that belongs to United Malay National Organisation or UMNO. We wish to categorically deny the statements in the said report," it said.

Earlier, theedgemarkets.com, citing sources, reported that UMNO has sold its 11.09% stake in Media Prima, the country’s largest media group, to tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, who already owns equity interest in Utusan Melayu Bhd and The Malaysian Reserve.

UMNO is still left with a 7.96% stake in Media Prima after the share sale.

It should be noted, however, that DRB-Hicom, which is also controlled by Syed Mokhtar, was never named in the article.

Shares in DRB-Hicom closed up one sen or 0.44% at RM2.29 today, with 13.35 million shares done, valuing the company at RM4.43 billion.

Media Prima’s shares, on the other hand, closed unchanged at 48.5 sen today, with 9.59 million shares exchanging hands, bringing its market capitalisation to RM537.96 million.

Read also:

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/umno-sells-1109-media-prima-stake-syed-mokhtar
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/media-prima-sees-11-stake-crossed-offmarket