KUALA LUMPUR (May 13): Eversendai Corp Bhd’s recent sharp rise in its share price has attracted scrutiny from Bursa Malaysia, which issued an unusual market activity (UMA) query to the steel structure and fabrication company on Monday. 

Shares of Eversendai jumped as much as 27.64% or 17 sen to a high of 78.5 sen during the morning trading session, the highest since October 2018. 

The counter then pared its gains to 72.5 sen as of noon trading break on Monday — still up 11 sen or 17.89% — giving it a market capitalisation of RM561.73 million. 

Eversendai’s trading volume of 43.1 million shares was 78.6% higher than last Friday’s (May 10) of 24.13 million, and more than four times the 200-day average volume of 10.04 million shares. It was the 10th most active stock on Bursa at noon break.

Investors were advised to take note of Eversendai’s reply to the UMA query, said Bursa Malaysia. 

Last month, the company secured four contracts worth RM5.4 billion in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and India. The announcement pushed its share price to rise by over 90%. Year to date, the counter has climbed over 353%. 

The company swung back to profitability for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2023 (FY2023), after three consecutive years of losses.  It recorded RM26.62 million in net profit against RM361.52 million in net loss a year earlier, as revenue jumped to RM1.45 billion from RM905.31 million. 

As of end-December 2023, it had RM1.03 billion short-term borrowings and RM34.86 million long-term borrowings. 

Eversendai’s founder and chairman/managing director Tan Sri AK Nathan Elumalay is the company’s largest shareholder via Vahana Holdings Sdn Bhd, owning a 69.75% stake. 

Earlier this year, Eversendai announced that it has decided to call off a deal that involved the injection of a liftboat business into the company, proposed four years ago. 

The company terminated the proposed transaction to acquire Vahana Offshore (M) Sdn Bhd (VOSB) — which is engaged in the operation, chartering and management of liftboat, marine vessels, tugs and barges — from Vahana Group, because VOSB had been unable to obtain a new financing facility, which was one of the conditions to the completion of the RM235 million deal.

The proposed acquisition of VOSB, which was announced in 2020, is a related-party transaction, given that it belongs to AK Nathan.