KUALA LUMPUR (July 31): Cape EMS Bhd (KL:CEB), whose stock price has fallen over 30% in the past week, saw its managing director and chief executive officer Christina Tee Kim Chin disposing of 1.895 million shares in the electronics manufacturing services firm on Wednesday.
According to a bourse filing, Tee offloaded the block of shares for RM1.27 million.
Following the disposal, Tee's shareholding in the company dropped to 37.86% from 38.05%. Nevertheless, Tee remains the largest shareholder of Cape EMS, followed by her sister Kim Yok, who is also the executive director, with a shareholding of 6.81%.
Interestingly, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has emerged as a substantial shareholder in the group after acquiring 3.5 million shares, according to a separate filing.
This acquistion took place on July 26 via the open market, increasing the provident fund's shareholding in Cape EMS to over 5%, the threshold required for substantial shareholding status.
The filing did not disclose the transaction amount, but based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation, the block of shares could have cost the EPF over RM2.48 million, based on the closing price of 71 sen on July 26.
Cape EMS has faced heavy selling pressure since last week, with the share price plummeting over 30% or 29.8 sen since July 22, when the counter closed at 98.3 sen.
On Wednesday, Cape EMS closed at 68.5 sen, up 2.5 sen or 3.79% from 66 sen at its previous close, giving the Johor-based company a market capitalisation of RM679.52 million.
With 31.64 million shares changing hands, Cape EMS was among the day's 20 most active stocks on Bursa Malaysia.
Last Friday, the counter triggered the suspension of intraday short-selling activities after it fell more than 15%, or 15 sen, from the previous day.
When contacted by The Edge last week, Tee said Cape EMS was aware of the selling pressure on its share price but stressed that the company’s profit margin remained very healthy.
Tee also expected revenue to continue to increase "strongly" this year and in 2025, due to orders from new and existing customers, as its customers were all in positive industries such as green energy and data centres with strong growth.
The company is slated to release its second-quarter results by next month. In the first quarter ended March 31, 2024, net profit jumped 58% to RM13.41 million from RM8.5 million a year ago, due to better performance from both industrial and consumer segments.
Quarterly revenue increased more than 12% to RM154.48 million from RM137.35 million, driven by increased demand for its products, particularly in wireless communication equipment, electronic cigarettes, and light electric vehicle segments.