KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 27): Lambo Group Bhd said the aggregate value of quoted securities acquired by its wholly-owned subsidiary Oriented Media Holdings Ltd has exceeded 5% of the group’s consolidated net assets.

Lambo said Oriented Media — which is involved in the investment in marketable securities — paid a total of RM9.78 million for the acquisition of shares in the 12 months ended Dec 24.

This accounted for 8.24% of Lambo’s latest audited consolidated net assets as at May 31, the group said in a filing with the bourse.

The amount spent for these shares is equivalent to almost 15% of Lambo’s market capitalisation.

The group said the acquisition of the quoted securities were made between Dec 6 and Dec 24. It did not disclose exactly what these securities were.

Currently, the investments have a total market value of 9.89 million, said Lambo.

According to Bloomberg data, Lambo’s largest shareholders are its executive director Koo Kien Yoon with a 7.43% stake,and UBS AG London (a nominee of Citigroup Nominees (Asing) Sdn Bhd) with a 6.27% stake.

Filings with the bourse showed that the UBS AG London nominee account has been accumulating Lambo shares, acquiring a total of 25.11 million shares since the start of December.

For the first quarter ended Aug 31, 2021, Lambo posted a net loss of RM3.58 million versus a net profit of RM25.04 million in the previous year’s corresponding quarter, while its revenue inched up 3.3% to RM916,000.

In its financial statements, the group cited a fair value loss on the investment in quoted shares amounting to RM2.22 million as the reason behind the slump in its performance, as the group benefited from a fair value gain of RM27.5 million previously.

Lambo’s share price closed unchanged at 4.5 sen on Monday (Dec 27), for a market capitalisation of RM66 million.

Year-to-date, the share price has plunged 93.4% from 68.2 sen as at Dec 31, 2020.