KUALA LUMPUR (May 10): BCM Alliance Bhd’s (KL:BCMALL) largest shareholder Kiu Cu Seng has disposed of his entire shareholding of 305.12 million shares, or a 15% stake, in the company. 

In a bourse filing, the commercial laundry equipment supplier said Kiu sold his stake on the open market on Friday. The transaction price was not revealed in the filing.

Based on Friday’s closing price of 1.5 sen, Ku would have received RM4.58 million from the stake sale. But the amount falls short of the RM8.78 million that he invested in some 305.12 million option shares.

To recap, Kiu emerged as BCM Alliance’s largest shareholder after exercising his share options from the employee share option scheme (ESOS) in January 2022. The exercise price of ESOS was 2.91 sen apiece.

Notably, Kiu and his colleague Cheng Li Ping were the only two employees granted the ESOS for 469 million shares.

Cheng also exercised 164.29 million option shares for an 8.08% stake. She trimmed her stake by selling 96 million shares six months later. As at March 29, she held a 3.13% stake in BCM Alliance, according to the company’s latest annual report.

The other substantial shareholder is Sanichi Technology Bhd (KL:SANICHI) with a 6.98% stake. Meanwhile, BSL Corp Bhd (KL:BSLCORP), in which BCM Alliance took an equity stake last year through subscription of rights issue, held a 2.75% stake as at end-March, the annual report shows. 

Both BCM Alliance and BSL Corp are sister companies with a common shareholder – Sanichi.

BCM Alliance has a cash-rich balance sheet. Its net cash position was RM29.85 million, including RM16.5 million in fixed deposits with Koperasi Maal Nizami Negeri Selangor Bhd as at end-2023. The company’s cash balance was at RM34.70 million as of end-2022 and RM65.6 million as of end-2021.

BCM Alliance has been loss-making for the last three years. Its net loss ballooned from RM1.18 million in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021 (FY2021) to RM28.71 million in FY2022 and RM41.55 million in FY2023.

The company blamed its annual loss in FY2023 on the impairment of intangible assets, impairment of goodwill on consolidation and impairment loss on receivables.

Consequently, the company racked up accumulated losses of RM35 million as at Dec 31, 2023.

BCM Alliance’s share price settled unchanged at 1.5 sen on Friday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM31 million.