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Lately, the exercise of ESOS shares by BCM Alliance Berhad’s employees has raised public interest. While ESOS is typically offered to all employees, only two employees of the company took up the offered shares. It is puzzling why the other staff did not take up the ESOS (if they were offered) as the ESOS was at a significant discount to the market price. Subsequently, the two employees emerged as the major shareholders of the company. Overnight, new major shareholders had emerged.

Some strategies for minority shareholders amid Omicron stock market volatility

Doubtlessly, the Omicron COVID-19 variant has given investors flashbacks to early 2020 when the pandemic first began spreading around the globe.

Recall that the variant made a dramatic media entrance on Black Friday (26 November 2021), triggering a global stock market sell-off after the World Health Organization (WHO) described Omicron as a variant of concern (highly transmissible although less severe than the Delta variant).