This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 21, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court yesterday allowed Pinerains Sdn Bhd, a shareholder of Apex Equity Holdings Bhd, to intervene in a vesting order application relating to the merger of Apex Equity’s unit and Mercury Securities.

Justice Azizul Azmi Adnan allowed Pinerains’ application and set tomorrow for next case management to hear further submissions before making a decision.

A vesting order is required in a merger exercise to transfer to — and vest in — one party all of another party’s rights, assets and liabilities.

Apex Equity’s lawyer Mak Lin Kum told The Edge Financial Daily that to be able to intervene in the application, Pinerains had to drop its initial suit against Apex Equity.

“You cannot make the same argument in two different cases. The judge said there had to be an election, so they agreed to drop the earlier suit,” he said.

Pinerains initially filed a suit on July 5, claiming that the circular issued for the proposed merger between Apex Equity’s subsidiary JF Apex Securities and Mercury Securities was misleading.

Pinerains’ lawyer Ranjit Singh confirmed that the company had been allowed to intervene in the application. Pinerains owns a 4.17% stake in Apex Equity.

Meanwhile, the High Court yesterday also fixed Sept 13 for case management of an application by Concrete Parade Sdn Bhd, a minority shareholder of Apex Equity, for a stay of execution on costs pending an appeal in its suit with Apex Equity.

On Aug 7, Justice Azizul dismissed the originating summons filed by Concrete Parade against Apex Equity and 15 others over the proposed merger with Mercury Securities as well as past corporate exercises.

Justice Azizul allowed costs totalling RM405,000, which included RM75,000 directed to Apex Equity and its wholly-owned unit JF Apex Securities and RM30,000 to Mercury Securities.