KUALA LUMPUR (Jun 2): James Chan Yoke Peng, a close associate to tycoon Tan Sri Halim Saad, emerged as a substantial shareholder in Metronic Global Bhd, with a 5.01% equity stake.

A filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday shows that a company named Tekad Mulia Sdn Bhd had acquired 35 million shares in Metronic (fundamental: 1.25; valuation: 0.3) at 10 sen per share through off market on May 26.

According to Companies Commission Malaysia, Tekad Mulia Sdn Bhd is owned by Chan, who is also a director in the private limited outfit.

Meanwhile, Chan is the incumbent non-independent non-executive director of Sumatec Resources Bhd, an oil and gas company in which Halim owns a 24.5% stake.

Through Tekad Mulia, Chan had been paring down his shareholding in Sumatec (fundamental: 2.0; valuation: 0.9) from 7.9% to 2.08% in March alone.

Metronic was trading at 9.5 sen per share as at 4:31pm today, up one sen or 11.76%, with 4.39 million shares changing hands, giving it a market capitalisation of RM59.36 million. Sumatec share price, on the other hand, gains 0.5 sen or 2.5% to 20.5 sen per share, with 26.06 million shares traded, valuing it at RM696.54 million.

(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.)