This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 19, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 10% stake in Green Packet Bhd was traded off-market since last week. The slew of off-market transactions are paving the way for the emergence of a substantial shareholder in the company.

Sources told The Edge Financial Daily that of the 62 million Green Packet shares crossed off-market on Tuesday, 80% of the shares were taken up by a Chinese-based fund.

“The buyer is a foreign institutional investor from China, who is expected to emerge as a substantial shareholder of Green Packet soon. Already, Green Packet saw 5% [of its stake traded through] off-market transaction last week,” said one of the sources which is familiar with the company.

There was a 2.2% stake or 19.5 million shares in Green Packet crossed off-market in two blocks yesterday, all transacted at 65 sen apiece, hence the transaction is worth RM12.68 million.

On Tuesday, Green Packet saw 62 million shares, an amount equivalent to 6.86% of the group’s total share capital of 903.43 million shares, transacted off-market.

According to Bloomberg data, there were 12 transactions in total, with every transaction size ranging from 565,260 shares to the largest of 15.24 million shares.

These transactions were done at prices between 60 sen and 63 sen, resulting in them being worth some RM37.81 million collectively.

Green Packet’s share price closed one sen or 1.47% higher at 69 sen.

Last week, the group saw 5.04% or 45.5 million of its shares traded off-market for RM27 million at a 9.8% discount to its closing price of 66.5 sen.

Green Packet’s share price has been on a rising trend since the beginning of July. The counter has almost doubled from 36 sen on July 1 this year.

The stock closed higher at 70.5 sen yesterday, up 1.5 sen or 2.2%, valuing it at RM637.03 million. At 70.5 sen, the stock is trading at its highest since Sept 20, 2011.