KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 31): Lau Pak Lam and Liew Fook Meng emerged as substantial shareholders in PUC Bhd as of last Friday (Jan 26), setting the stage for the return of the co-founders of Cocoaland Bhd to the public listed arena of corporate Malaysia.

PUC announced on Tuesday that on Jan 26, Lau acquired 232 million units of PUC’s shares via off market transactions, representing 9.64% of the group’s share base. On the same day, Liew acquired 241.55 million shares, or 9.8% stake.

On Monday, Lau acquired another 10 million shares in PUC, increasing his stake in the integrated media services and payment solutions provider to 248 million shares, or 10.05%.

Lau and Liew were partners in Leverage Success Sdn Bhd, a company which once held a 40.65% stake in Cocoaland, prior to their holdings being bought out by Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd in 2022. Leverage Success is the private investment vehicle of the Liew/Lau family.

F&N paid RM488.15 million, cash for the 325.43 million units of shares in Cocoaland that it did not own back in June 2022. Prior to the takeover, F&N owned 27.66% in Cocoaland, and was the second largest shareholder behind Leverage Success.

Shares in PUC closed unchanged at four sen on Tuesday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM98.71 million.