BY TEE LIN SAY
Business-savvy: Brahmal (left) has created a name as an investor with the ‘golden touch’ while Sai Men was a cornerstone investor in some of the major initial public offerings last year.
PETALING JAYA: Savvy investors Chua Sai Men and Brahmal Vasudevan have emerged as shareholders of property company Mulpha Land Bhd, according to the company’s just-released 2014 annual report.
Sai Men, who is the eldest son of veteran investor Tan Sri Chua Ma Yu, owns 3.41 million shares or 1.49% stake in Mulpha Land, while Brahmal owns 1.35 million shares or 0.59% stake in the company.
Sai Men was a cornerstone investor in some of the major initial public offerings last year. He also makes investments in selected companies such as Cypark Resources Bhd and a few oil and gas companies.
Brahmal, who is private-equity firm Creador’s founder and chief executive officer, has created a name for himself as an investor with the “golden touch”. He is seen as savvy and being able to offer value to the company.
While Creador the fund has taken stakes in Masterskill Education Group Bhd, Oldtown Bhd and Bonia Corp Bhd, Brahmal has personally taken up stakes in SRMT Holdings Bhd, Scicom (MSC) Bhd, MyEG Services Bhd and GHL Systems Bhd.
Mulpha Land, which has been undergoing a transformation of sorts, has seen its share price rise 134% on a year-to-date basis to 92.5 sen, following a restructuring exercise and a takeover offer that did not happen.
Since Mulpha Land announced plans to raise RM18.7mil through a private placement exercise on May 13, investor interest has propelled the shares up further. It is up 12.5 sen or 15.6% over the last 12 trading days.
On May 13, the property developer told Bursa Malaysia that it would undertake a private placement exercise of up to 10% of its issued share capital to finance a land acquisition, repay borrowings and as working capital.
The acquisition would be under its joint-venture entity, Mayfair Ventures Sdn Bhd. It said that based on the indicative issue price of 82 sen per placement share, the proposed exercise is expected to raise gross proceeds of up to RM18.7mil.
For the first quarter to March 31, Mulpha Land’s net loss widened to RM3.1mil from RM2.26mil previously. This was mainly due to the recognition of advertising and promotional expenses incurred for its Tropicana project.
Revenue dropped 74.27% to RM1.37mil on the back of lower sales recognised for its development project in Nibong Tebal, Penang.
Mulpha Land is now controlled by a new group of shareholders, who collectively own 50.38% of the company.
These individuals include Ghazie Yeoh Abdullah, who was appointed as Mulpha Land’s group managing director in 2013.
The other new shareholders are director Datuk Low Keng Siong and Datuk Fakhri Yassin Mahiaddin. Low and Ghazie are shareholders of Pasukan Sehati Sdn Bhd, which, in turn, owns 8.6% of Mulpha Land.
Fakhri, the son of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, is the ultimate controlling shareholder of Teladan Kuasa Sdn Bhd. In March Teladan Kuasa had launched a takeover offer for all the remaining shares in Mulpha Land that it did not already own for a cash consideration of 49.7 sen per share.
The GO was triggered after Mulpha International Bhd had entered into a call option agreement with Teladan Kuasa to acquire 75 million shares that represented up to a 32.85% stake in Mulpha Land.
Mulpha Land currently has projects in the Klang Valley, Penang and Kedah, with an estimated gross development value of RM1.2bil. These projects will keep it busy until 2018.
In the Klang Valley, projects under its belt include the redevelopment of two acres at the old Mulpha headquarters at Section 13, Petaling Jaya; 6 Kenny Hills; Enclave Bangsar and Tropicana. Other projects in its portfolio are Taman Bukit Punchor, Bukit Punchor Industrial Park and Taman Seri Bayu in Penang, coupled with the mixed-development township Taman Desa Aman near the Kulim High Tech Park in Kedah.
