DURING the period under review, notable off-market transactions include the acquisition of 17.45 million shares or a 20.32% stake in Sarawak Consolidated Industries Bhd (SCIB) by Datuk Dr Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah at RM1.10 per share on Aug 15.

The acquisition increased his stake in the Kuching-based precast concrete producer to 42.84%. Consequently, Karim has made a mandatory offer at the same price for the remaining SCIB shares not owned by him, as required by the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007.

The following day, he acquired another 1.23 million SCIB shares or 1.43% of the outstanding share base of the company at the same price. Both transactions were effected via direct deals off market, with the bulk of the shares sold by Tan Sri Dr Hamid Bugo.

Karim does not intend to take SCIB off Bursa Malaysia. SCIB’s share price has been on an upward trend since Aug 15, hitting RM1.27 last Wednesday — the highest since at least 2005.

Besides his investment in SCIB, Karim is also the largest shareholder of construction outfit Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd and warp-knitted fabric manufacturer-cum-property developer Kumpulan Powernet Bhd.

Over at SMRT Holdings Bhd, an acquisition of 10 million shares on Aug 16 resulted in the emergence of Teniza Holdings Sdn Bhd as a substantial shareholder of the education and talent development company.

The block, which represents 2.5% of SMRT’s share base, was acquired at 12 sen per share, according to stock market data. The price represents a 20% premium to SMRT’s traded price of 10 sen per share on Aug 16.

Post-acquisition, Teniza becomes the third largest shareholder of SMRT, owning a 7.47% stake. According to Companies Commission of Malaysia, Teniza is wholly owned by Indian national Kantamneni Keshav Narayan.

On Aug 19, a total of 2.35 million shares of HeiTech Padu Bhd, representing 2.33% of the IT and software developer’s outstanding share base, were transacted off market at RM1.25 apiece, according to stock market data. This was followed by another transaction involving 1.195 million shares the next day, representing 1.18% of the company, at RM1.28 per share.

HeiTech Padu’s share price has been on an upward trend this year, having risen more than 180% to last Wednesday’s closing price of RM1.18. The stock hit a year-to-date high of RM1.29 on Aug 15.

Firms with government-linked investment companies as substantial shareholders also saw their shares traded off market during the period under review.

On Aug 19, Velesto Energy Bhd saw 150 million shares or a 1.85% stake transacted off market at 30.5 sen per share via direct deals. The parties involved in the transactions were not known at the time of writing.

According to Velesto’s filings with Bursa, Permodalan Nasional Bhd disposed of 19.64 million shares between Aug 14 and 16. As at Aug 20, the investment fund owned 15.15% of Velesto.

At Westports Holdings Bhd, 16.6 million shares or a 0.5% stake changed hands on Aug 19 at RM4.02 per share. There was no announcement regarding the transaction as at press time.

However, during the period under review, the Employees Provident Fund disposed of 1.84 million shares, according to Westports’ filings. As at Aug 21, the EPF owned a 5.88% stake in the port operator.