KUALA LUMPUR (April 18): The broader Malaysian equity market struggled for momentum over the past decade, charting a somewhat bumpy and uninspiring course, until it saw renewed buying interest in recent years. But a distinct group of companies appears to have been left behind.

Whether these companies fell out of favour due to their own structural or sectoral headwinds, these names — some of which were previous market darlings — have suffered a prolonged valuation slump, so much so that their share prices have decoupled from the reality of their balance sheets.

Beneath the battered share prices, there may be fundamentally sound businesses with deep operational footprints or valuable underlying assets. We look at eight selected companies, including four former FBM KLCI component stocks, that may be prime merger and acquisition (M&A) targets due to their long-depressed valuations.

What are these companies and what could be the reasons for the slump in their share prices over the recent past, making them potential M&A or privatisation targets?

Find out in this week’s issue of The Edge Malaysia.

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