Creador pares down stake in MR DIY to 5.61%

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 21): MR DIY Group (M) Bhd’s substantial shareholder Creador Funds has trimmed its stake further in the home improvement retailer, having sold 289.4 million shares since September 2022, with its deemed interest down to 5.614% currently.

Creador, who listed MR DIY together with the company's founder Tan Yu Yeh of Bee Family Ltd, held 15.3% stake in the company via Hyptis Ltd when it was listed on Bursa Malaysia on Oct 26, 2020.

Hyptis' latest disposal on Tuesday involved 92.45 million shares or a 0.98% stake in MR DIY, company filing showed.

This amounts to a total of 289.41 million MR DIY shares or 3.07% sold by Hyptis since June last year, resulting in Creador’s deemed interest being pared down to 667.01 million shares or a 5.614% stake.

Bee Family, which is the largest shareholder in MR DIY, has 50.76% interest in the company. Its other substantial shareholder is Platinum Alphabet Sdn Bhd with 6.1% stake, according to company filings.

Shares of MR DIY settled five sen or 2.78% lower at RM1.75 on Tuesday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM16.51 billion. Over the past one year, the counter has depreciated 28.57% from RM2.45. The company listed on the Main Market at RM1.60, valuing the group at RM10 billion at the time.

MR DIY posted a marginal increase in net profit to RM136.08 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2022 (4QFY2022), from RM134.55 million a year earlier. This as quarterly revenue rose 9.27% to RM1.07 billion from RM975.39 million in 4QFY2021.

The group also declared a lower interim dividend of 0.6 sen, compared with 0.9 sen paid a year ago, bringing its year-to-date payout to 2.4 sen per share, from 2.95 sen per share.

For FY2022, MR DIY's net profit rose 9.52% to RM472.95 million from RM431.83 million in FY21, although earnings per share slipped to 5.54 sen from 6.88 sen.

This as revenue rose 18.15% to RM3.99 billion from RM3.37 billion, as net margin slipped to 11.87% from 12.8% in FY21 and 14.7% in FY20.