KUALA LUMPUR: Something is brewing at automotive and property development group Permaju Industries Bhd.
Two investors, Wong Thean Soon and Brahmal Vasudevan, are believed to have bought shares in the Volkswagen and Ford dealers.
They could have bought the shares through Credit Suisse Group AG, which bought a total of 9.7 million shares in the open market on September 21, to raise their stake to 5.17 per cent.
Permaju managing director (MD) Datuk Chua Tiong Moon, on the other hand, has disposed of virtually his entire 8.29 per cent stake in the company.
Chua, who is also MD of Sanbumi Holdings Bhd, has been the MD for Permaju since February 2013.
Wong, meanwhile, is the MD and single largest shareholder of MyEG Services Bhd and Brahmal is the founder and chief executive officer of private equity firm, Creador Sdn Bhd.
It was reported recently that Wong and Brahmal had emerged as new investors in Palette Multimedia Holdings Bhd, a broadband, networking and mobile health company.
In Palette’s annual report for this year, Wong appears as the fifth largest shareholder with a 3.92 per cent stake. Brahmal is the second largest shareholder of the warrants with a 13.77 per cent stake.
An analyst, who declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said there were some foreign funds which were buying undervalued counters on Bursa Malaysia.
Permaju’s net tangible asset value per share is 77 sen and market capitalisation is RM68.6 million based on their current share trading price of about 35 sen.
“For Permaju, they see the underlying value of the company and their estimated future cash flow through their flagship development in Sabah,” he said.
Permaju has 40.2ha land in Kota Kinabalu via its property development arm Hardie Development Sdn Bhd. Hardie is developing the land into a township called Alam Puteri that could generate a gross development value of over RM1 billion.
So far, 4.02ha have been developed in the township project, featuring office and residences.
Two years ago, Hardie inked a lease agreement with Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd to establishe the Mydin Hypermarket shopping mall in the township development.