Follow the Money #3: EPF sold AMMB for eight days, then bought back in three

Follow the Money, Issue #3. Changes in EPF's disclosed substantial shareholdings on Bursa, read straight from the filings. A weekly series.

Last week we reported that EPF had been reducing AMMB, about 19.2m shares across the second half of July. Here is what happened next.

AMMB: EPF filed a disposal on eight days between 20 and 30 July, taking its holding from 17.96% to 17.38%. On 3 August AMMB rose to a record after flagging a potential release of about RM2 billion in excess capital at its analyst briefing, as reported by The Edge. EPF then filed purchases on 5, 6 and 7 August: 826,800 shares, then 2,379,400, then 9,453,500. That is about 12.7m shares bought, roughly RM93m at current prices, and the holding is back to 17.76%.

THE RUNNING SCOREBOARD, three windows in:

Sold in all three windows: - Public Bank: 28.1m, then 30.8m, then 25.7m. About 84.6m shares, roughly RM133m in this window alone - Sunway REIT: 10.4m, 29.8m, 14.4m. About 54.6m shares - Pavilion REIT: 7.8m, 13.3m, 8.1m. About 29.2m shares - Alliance Bank: 5.8m, 8.0m, 3.4m. About 17.2m shares

Bought in all three windows: - Press Metal: 33.2m, 34.3m, 14.6m. About 82.1m shares - CIMB: 43.6m, 8.9m, 3.5m. About 56.0m shares, still the only big bank being added

Tenaga has gone the other way each time: 25.9m sold, then 19.7m bought, then 4.1m sold. RHB has filed nothing at all since the first window, after 20.7m sold.

THE REST OF THIS WEEK: the largest reduction was IHH Healthcare, about 39.3m shares or roughly RM330m. Maybank was trimmed again, about 11.9m. On the buy side, Johor Plantations added about 24.0m and Inari about 10.0m.

HOW TO READ THIS: these are small changes against EPF's total holdings, and EPF runs many managers on different mandates, so a single week is not a verdict. Valuation, mandate rebalancing, index weights and liquidity could all play a part. The disclosures show what was traded, not why.

METHODOLOGY: for each stock we summed every disclosed acquisition and disposal in EPF's Section 138 substantial-shareholder filings announced from 1 to 8 August 2026. This window is one week. The first two editions covered fortnights while we caught up on July, so the totals here are naturally smaller and are not a sign of less activity. Counting actual trades means share-base changes such as subdivisions do not distort the totals. Ringgit values are approximate equivalents at current prices, not trade proceeds. We reviewed 193 filings across 59 companies; 58 companies parsed completely and 1 was unavailable and excluded from every derived claim. These are substantial-shareholding disclosures under the Companies Act 2016, which apply at or above 5 percent and to changes while a substantial shareholder. They do not show every EPF position or every EPF trade. Source filings are on Bursa under each company's announcements.