Daniel Tam, linked to Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-Shing has raised his stake in XOX Bhd, which is gearing up to launch the fifth-generation (5G) wireless mobile network here in Malaysia.
XOX said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today that Daniel Tam now has 8.22 per cent stake, making him a substantial shareholder of the company. He acquired 20 million shares via open market transaction today.
In a separate announcement, XOX said that the Private Placement has been completed following the listing and quotation of 207.72 million and 120 million Placement Shares, being the first and final tranche of Placement Shares for the Private Placement, on the ACE Market of Bursa Securities on 22 July 2020, and 23 July 2020 respectively.
Shares of XOX have traded actively since early this month. The stock surged to as high as 20.5 sen today to close at 18.5 sen, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM295 million. Some 546 million shares were traded.
Daniel Tam is a shareholder and director of a large conglomerate listed in Hong Kong, in which Li Ka-Shing holds a substantial stake.
We still do not know if Tam is acquiring a stake in XOX for himself and to ride on the latter’s 5G development plan for Malaysia, or if he is acting as a proxy for the Hong Kong billionaire.
Nicknamed Superman, Li Ka-shing has a networth of US$26.5 billion as of July 21, 2020 (according to Forbes) and he is one of the most influential businessmen in Asia.
Li Ka-Shing retired as chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings in May 2018 but remains senior advisor. He is known to hold shares in several companies held through various proxies.
Daniel Tam is also well known in the China and Hong Kong market.
He is a director of Hong Kong-listed Chong Kin Group Holdings Ltd.
We did a check on Chong Kin and learned that it is a concrete services provider and the stock is currently trading at HK3.00.
According to the Euromonitor Report, Chong Kin ranked first among concrete services providers in Hong Kong. Its clients are contractors of various types of building and infrastructure projects.
According to the Hong Kong firm’s website, it has been actively exploring business opportunities in different sectors which can diversify its source of income and achieve sustainable growth.
It does make more sense now why Daniel Tam is buying up shares in XOX.
XOX plans to develop the 5G network in Malaysia in partnership with one of China’s top three telecommunications (telecom) groups who have approached the company this year.
This means it could be either China Mobile, China Telecom, or China Unicom.
XOX chief executive officer Ng Kok Hen had been quoted by an English daily a few days ago saying that one of China’s top telecom groups had approached the company for the 5G network build up and that discussions are underway.
The telecom group reportedly will invest up to RM10 billion to develop the infrastructure over five to six years.
In addition to the 5G, XOX is also working with Wetek Technology (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, which has a money lending licence to provide micro-financing to the tune of RM1 billion to XOX’s existing 2.2 million subscribers in Malaysia.
Wetek, whose directors are Howard Leung Hao, chairman and CEO of Brilliant (Hong Kong) Holdings Ltd, and Liang Zeng, an internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist, is also looking to provide micro-financing in the amount of RM2 billion to entrepreneurs and small business owners in Southeast Asia, together with XOX.
The micro-financing business in Malaysia, which is starting soon, will immediately improve XOX’s bottomline by a significant amount.
This service will be extended to individuals and small businesses without access to conventional banking and related services by populating XOX’s eWallet for usage in the XOX Digital Marketplace.
