KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 26): The High Court of Malaya has granted Apex Equity Holding Bhd’s orders applied to validate its past share buy-back exercises conducted between 2005 and 2017.

In a filing with the exchange today, Apex Equity said that the court has granted the orders applied for in the company’s application to the court pursuant to Section 582(3) of the Companies Act 2016 and  the Section 355(3) of the Companies Act 1965 to the High Court of Malaya at Kuala Lumpur on Aug 29, 2018.

A copy of the sealed validation order was extracted on Sept 4 and thereafter served on the relevant parties.

To recap, on Aug 1, Apex Equity, which owns stockbroking firm JF Apex Securities Bhd, said that the validity of its share buy-back exercises conducted between years 2005 and 2017 was “questionable”. The company’s memorandum and articles of association (M&A) does not provide it with the requisite authority to undertake share buy-back exercises.

Besides seeking a relief or order pursuant to a declaration validating the share buy-back transactions, Apex Equity also sought declarations ascertaining the validity of these shares being held as treasury shares, as well as the validity of these shares being distributed to the company’s shareholders as share dividend.

Last Friday, Apex Equity announced that it is proposing a merger with Mercury Securities Sdn Bhd through a RM140 million cash plus share deal. The group will be taking over Mercury Securities’ stockbroking, corporate advisory and other related businesses for RM140 million, of which RM48 million will be settled in cash and RM92 million via issue of new shares.

Apex Equity shares did not trade today. It closed at 94 sen yesterday, for a market capitalisation of RM190 million.