KUALA LUMPUR: Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH) has emerged as a substantial shareholder in diversified group DRB-Hicom Bhd with a 5.08% stake.Filings with Bursa Malaysia on Monday showed the pilgrimage fund bought one million DRB-Hicom shares from the open market on March 1. The following day, its bought 750,000 shares.On March 3, it bought another one million shares.The recent acquisitions saw it owning 5.086% or 98.31 million shares.DRB-Hicom's share price had risen in recent months following news about its plans for a foreign strategic partner to work with its loss-making Proton Holdings Bhd, which includes taking a stake.Two companies reported to be keen to be strategic partner are China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. and France's PSA Group.However, DRB-Hicom's share price had fallen since last Friday on a Bloomberg report that billionaire Li Shufu said he’s planning to pull Zhejiang Geely out of a bid for Proton.Bloomberg reported Li as saying DRB-Hicom keeps changing its plans.Both companies have submitted bids to buy a stake in money-losing Proton, which needs to bring in a foreign partner to help in research and development as part of conditions it agreed to in order to receive a loan last year. Last week, PSA CEO Carlos Tavares said last week that a decision on the Proton bid is expected in spring. Proton owns British sports car maker Lotus Cars Ltd.

Source: The Star March 06, 2017 10:41 UTC