PanPages could see emergence of new substantial shareholder

Marketing and data services company PanPages Bhd could be seeing the entrance of a new substantial shareholder, following an off-market transaction of 70 million shares yesterday at 35 sen each. This is a 9.37% premium to yesterday’s close of 32 sen. The off-market deal amounts to a 26.37% stake in the company, indicating that its existing substantial shareholder is exiting the business. Currently, the substantial shareholders of PanPages are Tan Tian Sin with a 21.6% stake, Kim Eng Holdings Ltd with 10.39% and Lau Kok Fui with a direct 5.03% stake. Lau last disposed of 10 million shares of PanPages on April 20, leaving him with a 5.54% stake in the company. He also retired as executive director of the company on May 25. There have been signs of a new shareholder entering the company, as on April 18, there was an earlier off-market deal of 20.57 million PanPages shares at 30 sen each. This amounted to a 8.52% stake in the company. If both off-market deals were to be taken into account, then it would appear that the new shareholder would control more than 30% of PanPages. Currently, PanPages is the authorised reseller for the Alibaba.com Gold Supplier membership in Malaysia, and has helped more than 3,000 small and medium enterprises in Malaysia on export trade. PanPages offers marketing-as-a-service, where it publishes business content on platforms such as Malaysia Super Pages, print directories, Alibaba.com’s global trade portal and other business sites. For the first quarter ended March 31, net losses widened to RM3.26mil from RM2.68mil in the same quarter of the previous year. Revenue dropped to RM4.23mil from RM5.38mil over the period. Nonetheless, business-wise, PanPages appears to be on expansion mode. On May 8, Lay Hong Bhd proposed to dispose of a 30% stake in G-Mart Borneo Retail Sdn Bhd to PanPages for RM10.75mil. Lay Hong has 16 retail stores in Sabah. Back then, PanPages said its rationale for buying G-Mart was to build up its online e-commerce business.