KUALA LUMPUR (March 31): The government’s special purpose vehicle, Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd (USJB), has disposed of eight million shares in MCT Bhd and bought 680,000 shares in IJM Corp Bhd.

According to Bursa Malaysia filings today, the SPV now holds 77.17 million shares or a 5.30% stake in MCT and 229.01 million shares or 6.31% equity interest IJM. Both transactions took place on March 26, the filings showed.

The Edge Malaysia weekly reported this week that USJB sold some of the shares it owned in 13 public-listed companies including MCT in the second week of March. The sale of these shares is likely to be at a loss, owing to weak market conditions.

These companies included Uzma Bhd, Icon Offshore Bhd, Reach Energy Bhd, Mah Sing Bhd, Star Media Group Bhd, MMC Corp Bhd, Lion Industries Corp Bhd, WCT Holdings and WZ Satu Bhd.

The wholly-owned unit of the Ministry of Finance was set up to manage Lembaga Tabung Haji's under-performing assets.

Following its establishment in December 2018, UJSB came to have stakes in 106 listed companies, one unlisted plantation company and 29 properties including four hotels and a plot of land at Tun Razak Exchange, at end-2018. Tabung Haji no longer has stakes in these 106 companies.