JOHOR Princess Tunku Kamariah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah Sultan Iskandar and fellow members of her takeover board have collectively stated that they do not recognise the outcome of today’s KNM Group Bhd’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM).
The elder sister of Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar Shah and six other aspirant directors – including German tycoon Andreas Heeschen who had requisitioned for the EGM – further called for investigation over possible irregularities in the vote count process.
These came about after they succumbed to almost a ‘clean sweep’ by the current board led by chairman Tunku Yaacob Khyra in all the 16 resolutions – except for two – that they mooted to remove the incumbent board.
The two resolutions were the removal of former federal territories minister an Tan Sri Zulhasnan Rafique and Steve Ho Soo Woon from office with immediate effect.
Apart from Tunku Kamariah and Heeschen, the seven-member takeover board also comprised Datuk Abd Ghani Yusof, Datuk Zaidi Mat Isa @ Hashim, William H. Van Vliet III, Flavio Porro and Edwin Silvester Das.
“It became clear during the virtual voting of today’s EGM that one resolution was not voted on with Heeschen’s 323 million shares, resulting in a vote count of 634.5 million (Resolution 1 to remove Tunku Yaacob from office with immediate effect),” Tunku Kamariah pointed out in a media statement.
“The other resolutions then included Heeschen’s shares and were surprisingly found to be precisely 323 million in difference.”
The importance of such point is that it proves that the physical proxy form as submitted by Heeschen prior to the EGM was not recognised.
“This leads to the questioning on whether other physical proxy forms were admitted and included into the total vote count,” noted Tunku Kamariah who was the nominated chairman for the takeover board.
She further observed that the total number of shares voted appeared to have been as marginal as a 2% difference of the issued share capital of the oil & gas (O&G) engineering outfit.
“The two sides are surprisingly close in shareholdings,” she highlighted while lamenting that KNM denied the request by the aspirant director side for an independent lawyer to observe the vote count at the EGM.
“Maybe they have something to hide.” claimed Tunku Kamariah while expressing concern after five submitted live questions were regarded as irrelevant questions by company secretary Lily Yin Kam May (who is also the company secretary for MAA Group Bhd) prior to the voting on the resolutions during the EGM.
The questions referred to the formalities of the vote were as follows:
- What is the total number of proxies received?;
- What is the total number of proxies rejected and who are they?;
- What is the total number of proxies appointing the chairman to vote?;
- What is the total number of proxies in favour of removal; and
- The total number of proxies voting in favour of appointment.
“We are assessing the situation and will discuss with our advisors. Our options range from conditional offers to dialogues with creditors and other stakeholders,” added Heeschen.
At the close of today’s trading, KNM was unchanged at 11.5 sen with 58.28 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM465 mil. – Oct 16, 2023
