This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 30, 2021 - September 5, 2021

NOTABLE filings of shareholding changes between Aug 16 and 20 include that of Avillion Bhd’s largest shareholder and managing director See Ah Sing disposing of a more than 25% stake and ceasing to be a substantial shareholder.

Filings show See’s vehicle Mazmur Capital Sdn Bhd disposing over 242 million shares between Aug 16 and 23, cutting holdings to only 6 million shares or a 0.575% stake as at Aug 23. The largest block was more than 12% or 116.6 million shares on Aug 18, with three others being 88.08 million shares on Aug 16, 17.5 million shares on Aug 17 and 20 million shares on Aug 23. No new substantial shareholder had emerged at the time of writing.

Mazmur had 248.18 million shares or a 26.28% stake as at Sept 2, 2020, according to Avillion’s 2020 annual report. This was just behind the 26.19% held through Ibu Kota Development Sdn Bhd by Daza Holdings Sdn Bhd, a private vehicle of Toh Puan Mahani Idris and Datuk Md Wira Dani Abdul Daim, wife and son respectively of former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin.

On Aug 9, loss-making Avillion said it had fixed the second tranche of up to 126.7 million warrant-sweetened placement shares at 12 sen each, the same price as the first tranche of up to 188.88 placement shares that were fixed on June 4. Only 96.33 million shares were placed out under the second tranche and listed on Aug 24 while 2.083 million shares were placed out under the first tranche and listed on June 21, filings show. Avillion closed at 14 sen on Aug 25, valuing it at RM140.8 million.

It had yet to release its second quarter earnings at the time of writing. Net loss of RM13.4 million in the first quarter ended March 31 was smaller than RM22 million in the previous corresponding quarter even as revenue tumbled by two-thirds to RM21.3 million from RM66.4 million.

Closing at RM5.38 last Wednesday (Aug 25), shares of Pentamaster Corp Bhd were up about 18% from the year-to-date low of RM4.55 on June 10 though still one-third below the year-to-date high of RM6.73 in mid-February, with investors still reconciling the impact of a global chip shortage on demand for semiconductor chip testers.

At the time of writing, the stock price remained a shade below the RM5.45 it closed at when a filing dated Aug 16 showed that the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) had re-emerged as a substantial shareholder of Pentamaster with a 5.06% stake on Aug 11. Filings showed the EPF raising its holding to 5.365% or 38.2 million shares on Aug 12 before trimming it by about 1 million shares to 5.23% on Aug 20.

Earlier filings show that the EPF was no longer a substantial shareholder on Aug 6 after the sale of 750,100 shares reduced its holding to below the 5% threshold. The EPF had earlier emerged as a substantial shareholder with 5.05% on Feb 9 and was recorded in Pentamaster’s 2020 annual report as its second-largest shareholder with a 5.78% stake as of Feb 26.

When releasing its second quarter results on Aug 13, Pentamaster said it expects its revenue to reach another new record high in 2021 with demand improving in major markets and measures in place to minimise disruptions to its operations. Net profit for the first half grew 0.7% year on year to RM34.01 million on the back of a 21% year on year growth in revenue to RM245.8 million.

Shares of ManagePay Systems Bhd were up 73% year to date at its close at 26 sen on Aug 25, valuing it at RM219.9 million.

On Aug 18, Datuk Wira Ng Chun Hau, Public Gold group founder and Caely Holdings Bhd executive chairman, emerged as a substantial shareholder of ManagePay that the latter says could pave the way for future collaborations between the fintech outfit and Public Gold’s precious metals business. Filings show that Ng held 44.4 million shares or a 5.28% stake as at Aug 18 following open market purchases at undisclosed prices, of which a 3.42% stake was held indirectly.

On Aug 24, ManagePay announced the subscription of 4.5 million placement shares at 24.5 sen each, which formed part of a planned placement exercise of up to 142.09 million shares or a 20% stake.

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