SEG International (SEGi) announced that Navis Capital is now one of its major shareholders with148.5m shares, or  an effective 26.5%stake, following the  disposals byprevious shareholders Cerahsar SB, Segmen Entiti SB and Datuk Chee Hong Leong oftheir entire stakes in SEGi.  As aresult, Navis Capital  is now SEGi's  2^nd largest shareholder afterDatuk Seri Clement Hii with 28.4% equity interest, or 158.8m shares,based onthe number of outstanding shares issued of 559.3m.

An upside surprise.Earlier, we had speculated that the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) couldbe taking up a stake in SEGi and possibly injecting Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahmaninto the listed entity after a huge block of the company's shares changed handsoff-market last Friday. Nonetheless, this Bursa  announcement  puts to rest our speculation. Having saidthat, we are positively surprised by  the emergence of Navis Capitalas the second single largest shareholder in SEGi as this marks the maiden entryof a private equity fund as a substantial shareholder into SEGi.Background onNavis Capital. Navis Capital was founded in 1998 with its core focus oninvestments in growth-oriented buyouts in South and Southeast Asia. Havinggrown tremendously  since  its inception,  the  fund has today  the largest professional  private equity teamin Asia of about 100 people in 7 offices across the region. It now manages someUSD3bn in capital commitments, with its sole investment in the education sectorpreviously being India's ITM Group of Institutions, which is an unlisted entityin which it invested USD30m in 2009.

Source: OSK188