This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on October 12 - 18, 2015.

BETWEEN Sept 30 and Oct 6, some 287.46 million shares worth RM573.79 million changed hands off market in blocks of at least 450,000 shares.

Among the notable transactions was the purchase on Oct 2 of 17.01 million Sycal Ventures Bhd shares by Fantastic Hallmark Sdn Bhd at 23 sen apiece, through a direct business transaction. The shares closed at 39 sen apiece on Oct 7.

Sycal Venture’s core business is in civil and construction works as well as property development. Mohd Wazir Khalid and Suzanna Mohd Nor were deemed to have acquired the 5.31% stake in Sycal Ventures (fundamental: 1.50; valuation: 2.10) by virtue of their shareholdings in Fantastic Hallmark. The seller of the block of shares had not been revealed to Bursa Malaysia at press time.

Emas Kiara Industries Bhd saw a 9.98% stake change hands through off-market transactions. Three blocks of shares were transacted on Oct 2, 5 and 6, totalling 9.18 million shares. All three direct business transactions were done at 75 sen apiece, in line with Emas Kiara’s share price.

Only one transaction had been announced to Bursa Malaysia at press time — the acquisition of 5.35 million shares by Kim Feng Capital Sdn Bhd by virtue of its shareholding in Kim Feng Capital. Sim See Kiong and Cindi Sim were deemed to have acquired the 5.8% stake in Emas Kiara (fundamental: 0.95; valuation: 0.90), an engineering solutions provider that specialises in the use of geosynthetics.

Only World Group Holdings Bhd saw six million shares cross off market on Oct 1 at RM2.23 per share. Subsequently, Rich Dad Café Sdn Bhd  disposed of six million shares on the open market on Oct 2. Rich Dad Café, which now has a 64.73% stake in Only World, is controlled by Datuk Koh Cheng Keong, Datin Chew Lean Hong and Datuk Koh Cheng Keong.

XOX Bhd saw plenty of off-market activity on Oct 5 and 6, with 6.185 million shares changing hands. Bursa issued an unusual market activity (UMA) query to XOX (fundamental: 1.40; valuation: 0.20) on Oct 5, after the group’s share price had gained almost 60% in the past two weeks, to as high as 15 sen on Oct 6. In response, XOX’s management said it was unaware of any material announcement that could affect the share price.

The off-market trades were transacted at 10 sen to 14 sen over 13 block trades. On Oct 2, XOX announced that it was disposing of its entire 50% stake in XOX Retail Sdn Bhd to Hassan Ab Ghani for RM1.

XOX is a mobile virtual network operator providing post and prepaid services.

Tex Cycle Technology Bhd saw five million shares cross off market in a direct business transaction at RM1.20 per share on Oct 6. Can Cycle Sdn Bhd, which holds a 45.8% stake in Tex Cycle, sold five million shares to institutional investors. The block works out to be a 2.96% stake in Tex Cycle (fundamental: 2.25; valuation: 0.50). The company’s share price staged a strong rebound at the beginning of the month, from 50 sen, marching to a nine-year high of RM1.31 on Oct 5. It closed at RM1.28 last Wednesday.

Tex Cycle is involved in waste management for various industries, mainly electronics, engineering, automobile, oil and gas and printing.

Note: The Edge Research’s fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations. Visit www.theedgemarkets.com for more details on a company’s financial

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