Tay Ben Seng ceases to be Saudee's substantial shareholder after just six months

KUALA LUMPUR (May 8): Focus Dynamics Group Bhd executive director Benson Tay Ben Seng has ceased to be a substantial shareholder in Saudee Group Bhd after offloading 33.09 million shares or 2.81% stake in the company.

Tay sold the block of Saudee shares for three sen each on May 3, according to Saudee’s bourse filing on Monday (May 8).

The frozen food processor’s shares closed at three sen on that day.

With the disposal, Tay is left with 32 million shares or a 2.9% stake in the company.

Tay emerged as a substantial shareholder in Saudee in November last year after he subscribed to 100 million shares in the company via an exercise of the option pursuant to the share issuance scheme.

It should be noted that Saudee’s largest shareholder is Focus Dynamics, holding a 20.78% stake via its Focus Dynamics Centre Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Focus Dynamics, Saudee’s 2022 annual report showed.

Focus Dynamics emerged as a substantial shareholder of Saudee in June 2021 after it subscribed to 138.05 million rights issue shares of Saudee, equivalent to a 19.37% stake in the latter’s share capital.

Saudee has been loss-making for three years since the financial year ended July 31, 2020 (FY2020).

The group’s cumulative six months for the financial year ended Jan 31, 2023 (6MFY2023) manage to chalk up a net profit of RM2.43 million, compared to a net profit of RM2.29 million a year ago, due to the increase in revenue from further process products segment — such as sausages, burger and nugget — which contributed higher margin.

Revenue inched up to RM50.81 million, from RM49.95 million during the same period.

Shares in Saudee closed up half a sen or 16.67% to 3.5 sen on Monday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM40 million.