KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 26): Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) has disposed of a 2.24% stake in Berjaya Land Bhd (BLand), ahead of its end-September deadline to comply with a public shareholding spread requirement of 20%.

According to a bourse filing on Tuesday, BCorp disposed of 110 million shares in BLand held under Juara Sejati Sdn Bhd via a direct business transaction on Sept 22.

A check with Bloomberg showed that a 110 million block of shares was disposed on Sept 22 at 27 sen apiece or a total of RM29.7 million.

This slashed BCorp's stake in BLand to 74.48% ― comprising 8.5% direct and 65.98% indirect equity interest.

Besides this latest disposal, BCorp ― via various vehicles ― has disposed of a cumulative 224.42 million shares or a 4.56% stake in BLand in August and September alone.

Back in end-July, BCorp’s stake in BLand stood at 81.28% ― an unchanged 8.5% direct stake and 72.78% indirect stake.

Recall that back in April, BLand announced that Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd had rejected its application for an extension to comply with the approved public shareholding spread requirement of 20%.

The local bourse regulator gave BLand a deadline of Sept 30, 2023, to rectify the public shareholding spread.

Looking at BLand’s latest update on the situation, the company’s public shareholding spread stood at 17.83% as at Aug 24 this year.

Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, founder of BCorp, ceased to be a substantial shareholder of BLand back in April this year, prior to briefly remerging and ceasing again in July.

Shares in BLand closed half a sen or 1.67% higher at 30.5 sen, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM1.53 billion.

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Vincent Tan ceases to be BLand's substantial shareholder