KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 18): Minetech Resources Bhd executive chairman Datuk Awang Daud Awang Putera has raised his total equity interest in the aggregate mining outfit to 295.42 million shares or a 23.3% stake via the company’s private placement exercise.

In a filing on Tuesday (Oct 18), Minetech said the Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd co-founder acquired a block of 30 million Minetech shares from the second tranche of the company’s private placement exercise for 2.8 sen apiece on Oct 14.

“The issue price of 2.8 sen is at a discount of 0.61 sen or approximately 17.89% to the five-day volume weighted average market price of Minetech shares up to and including Oct 5, 2022, of 3.41 sen per share,” Minetech said in a separate filing announcing the fixed price for the second tranche of shares.

This raised his direct interest in the group to 294.78 million or a 23.25% stake in Minetech, while his indirect interest in the company stands at 0.05% or 642,000 shares.

Based on back-of-the-envelope calculations, Awang Daud forked out RM840,000 for the shares.

Awang Daud last touched his Minetech shareholding back in December last year, when he disposed of 46.8 million shares in two blocks — 37.5 million and 9.3 million shares — for eight and seven sen per share, respectively.

As at Dec 24, 2021, Awang Daud’s direct interest in Minetech stood at 264.78 million or a 22.72% stake. His indirect interest stood at 0.05%.

Under Minetech’s private placement exercise of up to 349.6 million shares, Awang Daud was allocated 30 million shares or 8.58% of the issuance.

Minetech had said that based on an indicative issue price of 17.2 sen per share — a 19.9% discount to the five-day volume weighted average market price up to and including March 12, 2021, of 21.46 sen — the company is expected to raise RM60.1 million from the exercise.

On Tuesday, shares of Minetech closed unchanged at four sen, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM47.54 million. Year-to-date, the counter has fallen 60%.