POLICE from the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) had on Tuesday (Dec 12) collected documents from the company secretary office and the share registrar office of cash-strapped oil & gas (O&G) engineering outfit KNM Group Bhd.
It is learnt that the police have “collected documents pertaining to the business activities of KNM” during the process to facilitate their investigation.
CCID director Datuk Ramli Yoosuf confirmed that the police had gone over to the said premises to collect relevant documents.
“We went there only to collect documents for our investigation. No one was arrested,” Free Malaysia Today (FMT) quoted him as saying However, Ramli did not give details of the investigation the police are carrying out.
As KNM has yet to notify Bursa Malaysia on the matter, sources hinted that the documents could be related to KNM’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held on Oct 16 where a fully virtual polling exercise was conducted in the quest to remove nine existing directors of the company.
Recall that following the EGM’s outcome, the aspirant directors led by Johor Princess Tunku Kamariah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah Sultan Iskandar and German tycoon Andreas Heeschen who holds an 8.25% stake in KNM failed in their attempt to oust all nine board members, including chairman Tunku Yaacob.
They only managed to remove two directors, namely Tan Sri Zulhasnan Rafique and Steve Ho Soo Woon.
With the shareholder feud at the Practice Note 17 (PN17) status firm having dissipated, the financial woes at KNM are back in focus.
For its financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2023 or a 15-month period following a change in its financial year-end, the group continued to be in the red by posting a net loss of RM241.55 mil from a revenue of RM1.38 bil.
While KNM had on Nov 3 said it would appeal against a Kuala Lumpur High Court decision to dismiss its application to extend the restraining order (RO) against its scheme creditors, some disgruntled shareholders were reported to have wanted CEO Ravindrasingham Balasingham to take the rap for such development.
The shareholders claimed they felt cheated that “the SOA (scheme of arrangement) in real terms and effect remains a pie in the sky to-date”.
At today’s (Dec 14) market close, KNM was unchanged at 9.5 sen with 35.69 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM384 mil. – Dec 14, 2023
