EPF no longer MAS substantial shareholder

In a statement to the stock exchange yesterday, MAS said the fund sold five million shares on May 30.

However, EPF, the world’s sixth largest sovereign provident fund, may still hold a sizeable amount of shares in MAS.

This is because when the EPF sold two million shares on May 27, MAS had told the stock exchange that the fund still owned some 174 million shares in the company.

A substantial shareholder is a person or an entity who owns a minimum five per cent of a company’s paid-up capital.

But once one no longer owns a minimum five per cent of a company, the shareholder does not need to inform a third party on the shareholding amount.

EPF’s exit as a MAS substantial shareholder comes at a time when some 13.68 billion MAS rights shares will flood the market.

CIMB Investment Bank said yesterday the rights issue had been completed following the listing of and quotation for 13.68 billion rights shares on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia.

To recap, the national carrier, which is majority-controlled by Khazanah Nasional Bhd, had come up with a plan to raise RM3.07
billion from its shareholders by issuing the rights shares.

Under the proposal, each share will be entitled to four rights shares, and each rights share can be converted into one MAS share at 23 sen a piece.

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