This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 15, 2026 - June 21, 2026
TANCO Holdings Bhd’s (KL:TANCO) powerful share price rally, from just around 25 sen in early 2024 to a peak of RM1.76 early this month (June 3), raised many eyebrows.
However, its fall off the cliff, which saw the stock hit four consecutive limit downs, was jaw-dropping, leading market watchers to wonder what went wrong with the property company, which wanted to build a port and an industrial park in Port Dickson.
Roughly RM9.5 billion worth of market capitalisation evaporated in just four trading days. Bursa Malaysia froze the lower limit of Tanco’s share price at 20 sen after it plunged 87.4% or RM1.39. The stock closed at 20 sen last Friday compared with RM1.59 the week before.
Besides the lower-limit freeze, there is certainly more that regulators Bursa Malaysia and the Securities Commission Malaysia can do to clear any doubts the investing public might have about the vertical slump in Tanco’s share price.
As the stock hit limit down, the company’s largest shareholder, Datuk Seri Andrew Tan Jun Suan, who is also its group managing director, continued his usual routine of buying and selling Tanco shares.
Tan owns an 18.955% direct stake and 34.622% indirect stake in the company, held mostly via TJN Capital Sdn Bhd.
Last Tuesday (June 9), Tan sold 24.63 million shares or 0.41% equity interest in a direct business transaction as Tanco’s share price hit limit down for the second consecutive day. It is worth noting that the transaction price of RM1.555 per share was 44.5 sen or 40% higher than the intra-day peak of RM1.11. Tanco closed at 80 sen that day.
On the same day, Tan’s younger brother, Edwin Tan Kium Suan, bought Tanco shares at the intra-day low of 78.5 sen. A filing with Bursa shows that Kium Suan bought 7.64 million shares at 78.5 sen each. He is an executive director at two of Tanco’s subsidiaries.
On Wednesday, when the stock plummeted to 50 sen, Tan dumped two million shares at 50.7 sen apiece, equivalent to RM1.01 million, and also bought 15.27 million shares at almost double the price of RM1.05, or RM16.03 million in total.
It is not sure if Tan has stopped trading in the shares as there is no notice of changes in shareholding on Thursday and Friday.
He has been buying and selling Tanco shares regularly since 2024.
A random check shows that from January to last Wednesday, Tanco filed roughly 241 notices on share transactions conducted by Tan in 96 trading days.
Based on filings with Bursa, Tan had bought about 1.05 billion shares and at the same time sold 1.01 billion shares in Tanco since the start of the year. Some of these shares changed hands in off-market deals.
The transaction value is estimated at more than RM1.5 billion on both sides — buying and selling. Interestingly, Tan’s shareholding did not change much despite the high number of share transactions.
Tan’s direct shareholding stood at 1.134 billion shares as at end-2025 but his stake barely rose to 1.142 billion shares as at last Wednesday.
The question that arises is, what was Tan’s rationale for buying and selling shares on the same day frequently? After all, share trading on a daily basis can be a costly affair.
While the investing public was waiting for the company to shed some light on the share price meltdown, Tanco announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with China Mobile International Ltd.
It said the MoU was for the parties “to explore the development and building of a 50MW IT Load Data Centre in Port Dickson”. The MoU is in effect for one year and is deemed to be renewed after the expiry date. But this news did not help stem the plunge in the share price.
The announcement of the MoU came a day after Tanco replied to Bursa’s unusual market activity query, saying there were “endeavours at the stage of being discussed or negotiated” though the matter was not ready to be announced.
At the peak of RM1.76, Tanco was valued over 1,000 times its last financial year’s earnings per share of 0.15 sen.
It posted a lower net profit of RM7.9 million in the financial year ended June 30, 2025 (FY2025) against RM11.9 million the year before. Annual revenue came in lower at RM128.5 million compared with RM173.5 million in FY2024.
Despite the plummet, Tanco is valued at a price-earnings ratio of 74 times — higher than those of some semiconductor companies whose share prices have also climbed substantially amid the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
Construction is currently Tanco’s biggest revenue contributor. Its annual report shows that it owns a 349.69-acre tract in Port Dickson that has been earmarked for development into an integrated resort project known as Dickson Bay, among other plots.
When Bursa demanded an explanation for the unusual surge in its share price on April 20, Tanco pointed to news reports of a proposed container port project in Port Dickson.
Tanco’s ambitious plan is to build Malaysia’s first smart AI container port, often referred to as Midport, on its 480-acre tract in Port Dickson.
Tanco’s first announcement related to the mega project was on Jan 15, 2024 when its share price started gaining upward momentum. It said it received a letter from Malaysia Marine Department (MMD) notifying that the Ministry of Transport (MOT) has no objections to the proposed port project and that MMD is giving its approval-in-principle for the same. However, the approval-in-principle is subject to the various technical studies and all preliminary conditions that have been set by the MOT.
In December 2024 it signed an MoU with Cosco Shipping Ports Ltd. But till now, the duo have yet to ink a definite agreement.
In November last year, Tanco said it had received the signed copy of the heads of agreement (HOA) with Menteri Besar Negeri Sembilan (Pemerbadanan) to record the respective rights and obligations of the parties to the HOA with regard to the development of a “Smart AI Container Port” .
Did the dissolution of the Negeri Sembilan state assembly on June 5 affect Tanco’s ambitious plan and in turn spark the selldown in its shares? Or had there been other factors in play?
Whatever the case, until now, it is unclear how Tanco will fund the massive infrastructure project.
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