Weida, 2 parties now hold 24.33% in Mutiara Goodyear

KUALA LUMPUR: Weida (M) Bhd and two new parties have emerged as substantial shareholders of Mutiara Goodyear Development with a total 24.33% stake comprising 56.18 million shares in the property developer.

Filings to Bursa Malaysia yesterday showed that Weida acquired 13 million Mutiara shares or 5.63% while British Virgin Islands-registered Dickenscott Investment Ltd bought 23.18 million shares or 10.04% and Laman Arif Sdn Bhd 20 million shares or 8.66% last Friday.

Mutiara also saw a boardroom reshuffle with Laman Arif’s shareholders, Lim Beng Guan and Choong Khoong Liang, appointed executive director and director, respectively.

Lim, 38, who has a direct interest of 3.96 million Mutiara shares, is a director of Viztel Solutions Bhd. Choong, also 38, is a director in Atis Corporation Bhd and Genetec Technology Bhd.

Last Friday, four Mutiara shareholders sold their stakes totalling 30.7% or 70.99 million shares for RM1 apiece, which was a 8% premium to the closing price of 92.5 sen.

Dynamic Reap Sdn Bhd sold 18.24 million shares, Goodyear Management (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd 24.48 million shares, Lucky Kinetic Sdn Bhd 15.21 million shares and WMW Holdings Sdn Bhd 13.06 million shares.

Mutiara also announced the appointment of EP Manufacturing Bhd chairman Hamidon Abdullah, 54, as its deputy chairman. He is also an independent director of Atis. Hamidon has a direct interest of five million Mutiara shares.

Mutiara’s share price closed one sen higher at 87.5 sen yesterday with 1.22 million shares traded.

Mutiara has 735.6 acres of land in Seberang Prai Selatan valued at about RM240.8 million, about 95 acres in Gombak with a net book value of close to RM100 million, and an office building in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, with a net book value of RM32 million.

As at end-July, the company had about RM35 million in cash.

It also had about RM124.8 million in long-term borrowings, and about RM97.2 million in current liabilities.

By The EDGE MALAYSIA