KUALA LUMPUR (March 30): Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) and Abrdn Malaysia Sdn Bhd have upped their stakes in credit reporting agency CTOS Digital Bhd.
Filings with Bursa showed that KWAP acquired a total of 1.51 million CTOS shares and disposed of 319,700 in the open market on Wednesday.
Following the transaction, KWAP’s stake in CTOS increased to 6.5%, equivalent to 150.18 million shares.
Notably, KWAP first emerged as a substantial shareholder at a time when CTOS came under heavy selling pressure, falling below its initial public offering price of RM1.10, after receiving an unfavourable outcome in a legal dispute, where the judge ruled in favour of a businesswoman who had sued it for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty with regard to its credit scoring activity.
KWAP then acquired 28.81 million shares in CTOS in the open market and disposed of 1.37 million shares on the same day, bringing its total shareholding to 5.81%, or 134.14 million shares.
Meanwhile, Abrdn also increased its investment in CTOS by acquiring 6.52 million shares on Wednesday, raising its stake to 8.84%, or 204.37 million shares, according to filings with Bursa.
CTOS’s largest shareholder is private equity firm Creador V LP, which holds 19.58%. This is followed by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) with 11.35% interest in the company.
CTOS appealed against the High Court decision to the Court of Appeal on Feb 8, and also filed an application to seek a stay of execution of the judgement.
CTOS shares closed at RM1.32 per share on Friday, two sen or 1.49% lower from the previous trading day, bringing the company’s market capitalisation to RM3.05 billion.