Berjaya Corp offloads 7.44% Magni-Tech stake at 8.2% discount to PNB

(The Edge) – Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) has disposed of a 7.44% stake in Magni-Tech Industries Bhd to Perbadanan Nasional Bhd (PNB) at RM4.13 per share — a discount of 8.2% from the stock’s closing price of RM4.50 today — or RM50 million in total.

The disposals will result in a gain on disposal of about RM49.12 million to the BCorporation Group for the current financial year ending April 30, 2016.

PNB is an agency owned by the Ministry of Finance Inc mandated to lead the development of Malaysia’s franchise industry. Its board of directors is currently chaired by Datuk Syed Ali Abbas Al-Habshee.

In a bourse filing, BCorp said its wholly-owned subsidiaries Berjaya Group Bhd and Juara Sejati Sdn Bhd have collectively disposed of the 7.44% stake or 12.11 million Magni-Tech shares to PNB today.

BCorp said these Magni-Tech shares were acquired since November 2008 and has an average adjusted group carrying value as at Dec 31, 2015 of about RM1.84 per share.

Therefore, BCorp said the disposals provided it an opportunity to realise part of its investment in Magni-Tech.

On completion of the disposals, BCorp’s remaining interest in Magni-Tech stands at 8.43%.

Prior to this, BCorp said it had disposed of 12 million Magni-Tech shares, representing a 7.37% stake in the open market, for RM43.56 million or RM3.63 per share in November 2015.

BCorp said today the proceeds from both the disposals will be utilised for its working capital.

Magni-Tech’s principal business activities are manufacturing and sales of garments, corrugated fibre cartons, boxes, packaging products and flexible plastic packaging materials for industrial and commercial uses.

BCorp shares closed unchanged at 36 sen today, with 2.96 million shares traded in the open market, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.62 billion.