Sunway Bhd, whose shares price hit a new record high on Monday, said the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has raised its stake in the company to beyond the 5% threshold necessary to be deemed a substantial shareholder. The pension fund's stake in the company rose to 5.16% after it acquired 57.64 million shares on Jan 17.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): Sunway Bhd, whose shares price hit a new record high on Monday, said the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has raised its stake in the company to beyond the 5% threshold necessary to be deemed a substantial shareholder.

Sunway said the pension fund's stake in the company rose to 5.16% after it acquired 57.64 million shares on Jan 17. The block of share represents about 1% of the company’s total issued share capital.

Sunway, in its bourse filing on Monday, did not reveal the price at which the EPF acquired the shares. Based on the closing price of RM2.34 on Jan 17, the block of shares would have cost EPF some RM134.88 million.

Sunway founder Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Fook Ling had offloaded 150 million shares in the company via a direct business transaction on Jan 17. He is the largest shareholder in the company with a 53.85% indirect interest and a direct interest of 11.06%, the group’s filing on Jan 19 showed.

Sunway’s share price touched a new high of RM2.58 on Monday, before closing at RM2.50, for a gain of six sen or 2.46%. Over the past one year, the stock has risen 59%.

At RM2.58, Sunway is valued at RM13.79 billion.