KUALA LUMPUR (July 22): Shares in Yong Tai Bhd rose as much as 7.4% or 4 sen to 58 sen in morning trade, following the completion of its rights issue with free warrants in end-June.

As at 3.56pm, Yong Tai's (fundamental: 0; valuation: 0) share price pared some gains and was trading at 57.5 sen, still up 3.5 sen or 6.48% with 10.83 million shares done. The current price gives it a market capitalisation of RM68 million.

The trading of the counter became active after the announcement of the corporate exercise on June 24, with the highest trading volume at 17.8 million yesterday.

A remisier said the share price rally could be due to the completion of the corporate exercise, as well as the emergence of new substantial shareholders in the company recently.

“New shareholders coming into the company have also boost the confidence of investors on the future development of the company,” he told theedgemarkets.com.

On June 25, Yong Tai saw the emergence of two new substantial shareholders Tan Sri Lee Ee Hoe (9.18%) and Boo Kuang Loon (7.16% stake).

To recap, Yong Tai had on June 25 completed its renounceable rights issue of 80.23 million shares with 40.12 million free warrants on the basis of two rights share for every one Yong Tai share.

The rights issue and special issue raised RM63.32 million to finance its property development projects.

In addition, 40 million special issue shares issued were issued to independent third party investors at 58 sen per share.

Yong Tai, which ventured into property development last year, recently completed its 29-storey serviced hotel The Pine (formerly known as 99 Residence) in Melaka. The hotel will be run by its joint venture partner PTS Properties Sdn Bhd.

Currently, the company has another hotel and serviced apartment — The Apple — in the pipeline. The hotel will be operated by Courtyard by the Marriott Group, which has signed a 20-year contract.

The garment-to-property developer's share price has been on an upward trend, up some 20% since July 16, when it was trading at 47.5 sen.  

(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.)