NO fireworks except subdued share price and thinning traded volume which prompted incessant share buyback which even the company patriarch has to partake.
Such is an overview of the state of business at Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) since Abdul Jalil Rasheed confirmed his departure almost a month ago (on March 21 to be precise) with his official resignation having taken effect on March 31.
Although the conglomerate has since embarked on a dual-CEO strategy with the appointment of group veteran Vivienne Cheng Chi Fan and Syed Ali Shahul Hameed as joint group CEO, investors seem unconvinced over near-term prospect with BCorp’s share price stagnating at the 23 sen-24 sen range.
Contrast this with how BCorp share price shot through the roof when the former youngest head honcho of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) came on board on March 16 last year with BCorp hitting an intraday high of 50.5 sen (which was more than the stock’s six-year high) on April Fool’s day that year.
Although the share buyback exercise does have beneficial effect in terms of ‘stoking’ stock liquidity and stock volatility, investors are now concerned on the sustainability of such exercise, ie how deep a pocket does BCorp has to continue supporting BCorp’s share price artificially or shouldn’t it be left to market forces to determine BCorp’s share price.
Based on BCorp’s immediate announcement on shares buyback to Bursa Malaysia, the group has spent close to RM15 mil to acquire 64.51 million shares between March 21 and April 8 with founder/chairman Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun amassing 59.16 shares between April 7 and April 14.
As for Tan’s case, it is worthwhile noticing that he had earlier disposed of 74.09 million shares between March 28 and March 30.
For the record, the dual-CEO concept is not alien to the Berjaya group given back in October 2020, retail and convenience store operator 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd had appointed its then chief financial officer Wong Wai Keong and executive director Tan U-Ming as the co-CEOs for the retail convenience store chain with effect from Dec 1, 2020.
Tan is the largest shareholder in 7-Eleven Malaysia with a shareholding a 27.56% direct stake and 23.12% indirect stake.
As at 11.50am, BCorp was unchanged at 24 sen with 1.52 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM1.3 bil. – April 20, 2022
