KUALA LUMPUR: Global Oriental Bhd’s share price shot up by 13.54% yesterday, following a report by The Edge weekly that businessman Tan Sri Ta Kin Yan’s son, Ta Wee Der, has been made executive director of the company.
The usually thinly traded stock settled at 54.5 sen yesterday, up 6.5 sen from 48 sen last Friday, after gradually decreasing from its previous high of 52 sen last November.
Some 2.31 million shares were traded yesterday, in contrast to the thin volume for the past year.
At yesterday’s close, the property development outfit had a market capitalisation of RM123.9 million.
According to an announcement by Global Oriental last month, Wee Der is a graduate from Curtin University in Australia and has a Bachelor of Accounting degree.
Prior to his appointment, he was the head of finance and construction divisions of a “renowned company” dealing in property development, hospitality and construction, Global Oriental said.
The 24-year-old has working experience in glass and aluminium-related businesses, said Global Oriental, but did not mention Waz Lian Group, which is the Ta family’s flagship.
Wee Der’s appointment at Global Oriental took the market by surprise with some speculating there could be a corporate exercise involving Waz Lian Group.
There is no sign of Waz Lian acquiring shares in Global Oriental, which is without a significant shareholder after businessman Datuk Patrick Lim sold the company, previously known as Equine Capital Bhd, in 2011.
For the financial year ended March 31, 2012, Global Oriental’s revenue rose 86.1% to RM277.5 million while net profit jumped 401.6% to RM32.1 million.
The company has a clean balance sheet with total borrowings of only RM18.4 million against shareholders’ funds of RM229.1 million.
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Jan 15, 2013.