Johor Corp, KWAP up Kulim stake

Johor Corp, KWAP up Kulim stake

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 27): Johor Corp Bhd, the investment arm of the Johor state government, upped its stake in Kulim (M) Bhd ( Financial Dashboard) last week by purchasing an additional 145,000 shares in Kulim.

According to plantation firm Kulim's announcement to Bursa Malaysia today, Johor Corp's Kulim share purchase on the open market last Tuesday (Oct 21) brought Johor Corp's stake to 774.35 million shares in Kulim.

Based on Kulim's latest reported issued share base of 1.29 billion shares, Johor Corp's stake came to some 60% in Kulim.

Johor Corp had purchased more shares in Kulim ahead of Kulim announcement last Thursday (Oct 23) that it intended to accept Sime Darby Bhd ( Financial Dashboard)'s offer to purchase Kulim's 48.97% stake in New Britain Palm Oil Ltd for approximately RM2.75 billion.

Kulim had proposed to distribute some RM1 billion of the disposal proceeds to shareholders as dividends. This is equivalent to about 78 sen per Kulim share.

In a separate statement to Bursa Malaysia, Kulim said Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbandankan) (KWAP) had also increased its stake in Kulim.

Kulim said KWAAP bought 147,700 shares on the open market last Monday (Oct 20). Following the purchase, KWAP's stake in Kulim came to 107.57 million shares or some 9%.

Earlier, KWAP had purchased 60,300 Kulim shares on October 17 and 62,000 shares on October 16 this year.

Kulim shares rose one sen or 0.3% to RM3.50 for a market capitalisation of RM4.52 billion.