KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 20): Shares in XOX Bhd surged as much as 2.5 sen or 15.63% to a high of 18.5 sen in early trades on a news report that the loss-making mobile virtual network operator may be the target of a takeover by Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.
At 10.51am today, XOX shares gained 2 sen or 12.5% to 18 sen on volume of 7.93 million shares.
According to senior remisier at SJ Securities Goh Kay Chong, the market believes there must be some basis to this piece of news.
“The takeover would be a good thing [for XOX] as there will be new funds and new ideas coming into the company,” Goh said, adding that Syed Mokhtar is an influential businessman who can take XOX far.
A local newspaper, quoting unnamed people familiar with the matter, said the takeover could take place “as early as next month”.
"XOX is an interesting proposition to Syed Mokhtar's group because of its involvement in the telco business and its current strategic partnership with Celcom (M) Bhd," the paper reported.
Currently, XOX uses Celcom’s mobile network infrastructure under a commercial agreement.
Coincidentally, Syed Mokhtar’s Puncak Semangat Technology Sdn Bhd will soon be riding Celcom’s network to run its 4G service now that it has been awarded the 2600MHz spectrum by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), allowing it to provide 4G services.
The newspaper also said that on Dec 17, the stock had hit a high of 30 sen a piece, “on expectation that an agreement to take over the company has been reached.”
And when it did not materialise, the share price corrected itself downwards.
