Jentayu Sustainables shares fall to nearly six-month low, intraday short selling suspended

KUALA LUMPUR (July 2): Shares of Jentayu Sustainables Bhd (KL:JSB) fell to their lowest in nearly six months in morning trade on Tuesday, prompting Bursa Securities to suspend the counter’s intraday short selling (IDSS).

JSB’s share price fell as much as 22 sen or 26% to its intraday low of 62 sen – the lowest since Jan 23, 2024.

The stock was last traded at 63.5 sen before the lunch break, valuing the loss-making group, which is involved in renewable energy, healthcare and building materials trading, at RM280.28 million on Bursa Malaysia. More than 9.3 million shares changed hands. JSB (KL:JSB-WB) warrants fell 16% to 24.5 sen.

Last year, JSB shares fell 25.3%.

JSB’s IDSS was suspended for the rest of Tuesday after the last set price fell by more than 15 sen, or 15%, from the reference price, Bursa said in a statement.

“Short selling under the IDSS will only be activated on the following trading day, Wednesday (July 3) at 8:30 a.m.,” the stock exchange regulator said.

JSB’s IDSS was also suspended on Jan 17 after the counter hit its lower limit, falling as much as 30% or 39 sen to a three-month low of 91 sen. It continued to plunge in the following days, hitting another lower limit two days later, prompting Bursa to freeze the lower limit share price for the counter at 50 sen, then its lowest level in 16 months.

In response to a query from Bursa on unusual market activity (UMA) following the sharp decline in its share price, JSB stated that the recent completion of its private placement could be the reason for the increased trading activity on the counter.

The previous month, JSB announced a private placement of up to 57.24 million shares, or 10% of its share base of 572.37 million shares.

The placement raised RM66.39 million to finance the Company’s pre-development expenditure on two hydropower plants in Sabah, new projects and working capital.

The green energy solutions provider assured at the time that the wave of sales did not accurately reflect the company’s fundamental facts and argued that the price fluctuations were of a short-term nature.

Before the sell-off, JSB’s share price rose 200% over the past two years, from 43.5 sen at the end of 2021 to a high of RM1.32 in early January.

On a financial front, JSB widened its net loss to RM9.25 million in the third quarter ended March 31, 2024 (3QFY2024), from a net loss of RM6.82 million in the same period last year, as revenue declined 15.1% to RM5 million from RM5.84 million due to a decline in revenue from the healthcare division.

JSB’s largest shareholder is Datin Norhaida Abu Sahid, wife of the group’s chairman, Datuk Beroz Nikmal Mirdin, with a stake of 14.47%. Bloomberg Data showed.

Norhaida is a director of Jentayu Capital Sdn Bhd and Borneo Sustainable Energy Sdn Bhd, which are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Group. Beroz Nikmal holds a direct interest of 4.42% in JSB.

The second largest shareholder of JSB is the American investment bank Morgan Stanley with a 7.9 percent stake in the company.