KUALA LUMPUR (April 29): Shares of Turiya Bhd rallied on Monday to their highest in over three years after Tan Sri Mohan MK Swami and his partner agreed to acquire a 58% stake in the property management firm for RM52.86 million.

Turiya rose as much as 7.6% to 42.5 sen, its highest since February 2021. The stock was trading at 41.5 sen, still up 5.1%, at 10.20am after more than seven million shares changed hands. The current share price has also exceeded its acquisition price equivalent to 40 sen per share.

Under Malaysian takeover laws, the doctor-turned-businessman and Datuk Seri Dr Shamir Kumar Nandy will be required to make a general offer to acquire all the remaining shares not already owned by them at 40 sen per share.

This follows an earlier acquisition of a 58% stake in Turiya by Swami and Shamir from MAA Group Bhd at 40 sen per share or RM52.86 million.

MAA itself had acquired the stake for RM23.79 million or 18 sen per share in 2021 from Ithmaar Bank, which Swami-linked Empire Holdings Ltd argued was merely holding the Turiya shares by way of charge.

Empire had filed an injunction to block MAA from trading the shares, but the suit was dismissed in March 2024.

Before the latest development, MAA intended to take over Turiya — which owns the Wisma Chase Perdana building in Damansara Heights — in its entirety. Nonetheless, the deal nets MAA a cool profit of RM29.07 million on the stake sale.

Turiya’s net assets amounted to RM132.35 million or 58 sen per share at end-December last year. Based on trailing earnings per share of 1.86 sen, the transaction price for MAA’s stake values the company at 21.5 times trailing price-earnings ratio.

The company, which operates a property investment segment and manufactures specialty chemical products for the semiconductor industry, has been profitable in the last five years, although it still carries negative equity reserves of RM148.97 million.

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Mohan Swami, partner agree to buy 58% of Turiya for RM52.86m from MAA Group