This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 27, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: A London-based investment management firm, Edgbaston Investment Partners LLP, has emerged as a substantial shareholder of Umno-linked Media Prima Bhd with a 5.37% stake, making it the fifth-largest single shareholder of the group.

Stock exchange filings of Media Prima showed Edgbaston Investment Partners was first listed as a substantial shareholder earlier this month with a 5% stake after acquiring, on Feb 8, 750,800 shares via Edgbaston Asian Equity Trust and 166,100 shares via Edgbaston Asian Equity (Jersey) Trust, which pushed its accumulated shares to 55.47 million shares.

Then, between Feb 11 and last Friday, Edgbaston Investment Partners continued accumulating shares in the media group, which has presence in the print media, radio, and free-to-air TV. After buying 4.09 million more shares in the company, Edgbaston Investment Partners’ total stake rose to 59.56 million shares or 5.37%, according to Media Prima’s Monday filing.

Edgbaston Investment Partners, according to its official website, is an independent investment management firm established in 2008 by Charu Fernando and partners to specialise in equity investments in the Asia-Pacific ex-Japan.

It was formed with the support and backing of an institutional investment firm Silchester International Investors, based in New York and London, and its portfolio is typically invested in 60 to 80 companies diversified across a range of countries, industries, and market capitalisation.

Edgbaston Investment Partners’ 5.37% stake places it as the fifth-largest single shareholder of Media Prima after Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s 12.76% (held through Morgan Stanley & Co International PLC), the Employees Provident Fund Board (11.94%), Gabungan Kesturi Sdn Bhd (11.09%), and Altima Inc (7.96%).

Gabungan Kesturi is listed as a wholly-owned unit of Amanah Raya Bhd, which in turn is 100% owned by the Minister of Finance Inc. Altima, meanwhile, is owned by Umno.

In the open market, Media Prima closed unchanged at 43.5 sen at the time of writing, with a turnover of 993,500 shares. At its current price, the company is valued at RM471.41 million, slightly above Edgbaston’s portfolio market capitalisation prerequisite of US$100 million (RM407 million).