KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 13): Hot on the heels of the entry of a new substantial shareholder, trading in Destini Bhd's shares hit 87 sen apiece, its highest since January 2008.

The provider of maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) for aircraft, ships, and trains has risen suddenly since early last month. Previously, the stock was trading in the range of 59 sen for the past year.

This compared with its price of 85 sen as at 11:10 a.m., which was one sen or 1.19% higher than last Friday. A total of 10.15 million shares were traded, catapulting it to the seventh position on Bursa Malaysia’s most active list.

Its intraday high of 87 sen was the highest since Jan 31, 2008, when it hit 98 sen, just before it undertook a corporate restructuring and was called Satang Holding Bhd.

One of Destini’s filings with the stock exchange last Friday (Sept 9) revealed that MTD Capital Bhd had bought 31 million Destini shares to become a substantial shareholder. MTD Capital bought those shares on Aug 17, bringing the Destini shares it owned to 64 million or 6.42% of the total issued shares.

MTD Capital was listed on Bursa Malaysia until May 2011, with a variegated portfolio of businesses ranging from property development, manufacturing, toll concessions, waste management, and construction. According to its website, MTD Capital also has a 27.8% stake in Touch n Go Sdn Bhd, the sole operator of Malaysia’s electronic toll collection (ETC).

Destini has been grabbing the spotlight since it entered the second half of the year. In June, the company ventured into rail-based MRO business, after a contract award from the Ministry of Transport to build a new motor trolley and new road rail vehicle. The two-year contract was valued at RM62 million.

Shortly thereafter, The Edge weekly reported Destini and AirAsia Bhd were in talks to form a joint venture entity to park the latter’s MRO assets, should AirAsia be successful in purchasing Airbus SAS’s subsidiary, Sepang Aircraft Engineering Sdn Bhd. The target was for the joint entity to handle US$1 billion worth of MRO jobs, over the course of 10 years.

However, the company said it had “no knowledge of the content stated in the (article)”, after enquiring the board.

“Further[more], should there be any material event relating to the company, Destini will ensure appropriate announcement be made to Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd in a timely manner, in accordance with the Main Market Listing Requirements of Bursa Securities,” it said in a July 19 filing.