KUALA LUMPUR (April 4): Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun has ceased to be a substantial shareholder of Berjaya Land Bhd (BLand), in which he was formerly a major shareholder, after offloading a 1.42% stake in the property and hospitality company.
The stake, comprising 69.89 million shares — 25 million shares or 0.508% held directly, and 44.89 million shares or 0.912% held under Berjaya VTCY Sdn Bhd — was sold via direct business transactions on March 30, BLand showed in a local bourse filing on Monday (April 3).
This slashed his direct shareholding in BLand to 33.75 million shares or a 0.686% stake, while his deemed interest dropped to 200.98 million shares or 4.085%.
Tan sold the aggregate 69.89 million shares at 26 sen apiece, which translated into a disposal consideration of RM18.17 million.
BLand’s largest shareholder is Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp), which Tan founded. BCorp directly owns 418.1 million shares or an 8.45% stake in BLand, and another 3.56 billion shares or 72.43% via various subsidiaries.
BCorp’s shareholding is not considered Tan’s deemed interest, as his stake in BCorp has gone below 20% after saying in December last year that he would trim his stake in the company to facilitate the potential acquisition of a 51% stake in a licensed entity under Bank Negara Malaysia's purview. BCorp later revealed it was in talks to buy a controlling stake in MCIS Insurance bhd.
By end-March, Tan had trimmed his direct stake in Bcorp to 7.51% from 20.85% as at October 2022, and his indirect stake to 9.3% from 13.39%.
BLand, meanwhile, also announced on Monday that Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd had rejected the company's application for a six-month extension to comply with the approved public shareholding spread requirement of 20%.
The local bourse regulator instructed BLand to rectify its public shareholding spread by Sept 30, 2023. The company’s public shareholding spread stood at 13.76% as at end-March, a shortfall of 6.24% or 307 million shares.
In response, BLand assured that it would comply and take the necessary steps to rectify the shortfall by the deadline, adding that an announcement on the compliance will be made in due course.
BLand shares closed unchanged at 27 sen on Tuesday, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM1.35 billion.