KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 20): Bright Packaging Industry Bhd (KL:BRIGHT) has seen a change in largest shareholder after businessman Datuk Ricky Wong Shee Kai sold a 17.78% stake to non-independent director Lye Jun Fei.

According to a bourse filing on Tuesday, Wong’s vehicle Wong SK Holdings Sdn Bhd disposed of the 36.5 million block of shares to Lye’s vehicle Datai Holdings Pte Ltd on Monday (Nov 18).

The transaction saw Lye emerge as the aluminium foil packaging material maker’s largest shareholder with a 32.58% stake, while Wong remains a substantial shareholder with a 5.42% stake.

A check with Bloomberg off-market data showed the transaction was done at 8.5 sen apiece or an aggregate RM3.1 million.

Against the counter’s last closing price of 19.5 sen on Nov 12, the 8.5 sen price-tag was at a 56.4% discount. Year-to-date, Bright Packaging shares are down 7.14%.

The stake sale comes days after the High Court dismissed the Securities Commission's (SC) application for the civil forfeiture of 5.79 million Bright Packaging shares owned by Wong’s vehicle.

However, the court also granted the prosecution a stay of execution and ordered them to file a stay notice to the court by Nov 18 — this means Wong will not be able to deal with any of 5.79 million Bright Packaging’s shares until the stay of execution is disposed of.

Wong is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the SC over allegedly contravening Section 179 of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 by using devices, schemes, or artifices to defraud Bright Packaging and/or engaging in acts, practices or courses of business which operated as a fraud of the company.

The 5.79 million shares were alleged to have been procured as proceeds from unlawful activities related to Bright Packaging.

Wong has been absent from the country since 2019, but his lawyers deny that he is a fugitive.