Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 21): An independent and non-executive director of loss-making iDimension Consolidated Bhd, Collin Goonting, has resigned from his post, citing a lack of transparency in the company’s board.

Goonting, 72, indicated there has been a lack of transparency within the members of the board and he is very concerned that the interest of the shareholders are not considered when certain decisions are made. “His only option is either to condone the decisions or to resign and he chose the latter,” the company said in a Bursa Malaysia filing today, as to the reason for his resignation. 

Consequently, he also relinquished his position as a member of the company’s audit, remuneration and nomination committees. A practising lawyer who has been active in the corporate and financial sectors both in Malaysia and abroad, Goonting was appointed to Dimension's board on Nov 22, 2013.

Other directors on iDimension’s board are: chairman Datu Dr Michael Dosim Ak Lunjew, managing director Daniel Boo Hui Siong, executive directors Pang Lee Fung, Tan Kian Meng and Kenneth Boo Hui Howe; and independent non-executive director Eric Lim Kheng Joo.

It should be noted that in April 2017, the company’s shareholders, namely Ang Beng Leong, Ang Beng Cheong, Ang Beng Hwa and EClub Interactive Sdn Bhd, had requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove Tan and Pang from the board, and to put in place their preferred appointees. The Angs, together with EClub Interactive, held an aggregate of 18.01% of iDimension’s total issued share capital at the time. The resolutions, however, were not approved by shareholders.

Then in October last year, BDO, the external auditors of iDimension, expressed an adverse opinion on the company’s financial statements for the six-month financial period ended June 30 (1HFY18), triggering the Guidance Note 3 (GN3)/Practice Note 17 (PN17) status.

BDO had disagreed with the decision made by iDimension’s board to treat its subsidiary, IDB Interactive Sdn Bhd, as a pure investment as opposed to a subsidiary to be consolidated, which is in accordance with the law and financial reporting standards, iDimension said at the time.

“The key reason for this decision emanates from iDimension’s inability to obtain access to IDB’s accounting and other records in order to verify the accuracy of the financial information of IDB for the financial period,” iDimension said.

It said this was due to a tussle with the previous management of IDB, which had not adhered to legal demands for the return of financial and business documents, after ceasing operational management of the unit.

The board of iDimension subsequently decided to deconsolidate IDB’s financial statements, after failing to corroborate or verify their accuracy, it said.

“In fact, the actions of the board is what would have been reasonably expected of the directors of a company, in accordance with their fiduciary obligations to protect the interests of the company and its shareholders,” iDimension said.

As at Oct 17 this year, the company had yet to resolve its PN17 status, with the bourse allowing an extension of time up to April 8, 2020, for the company to submit a regularisation plan to the regulatory authorities.

The company faces the suspension of trading of its shares, in the event it fails to submit a regularisation plan to obtain the approval of the regulatory authorities for the said plan’s implementation, or if it fails to implement the regularisation plan within the stipulated time frame.

In its financial year ended June 30, 2018 (FY18), iDimension posted a net loss of RM18.47 million. The company has been loss-making since 2012, except for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2016 (FY16), when it recorded a net profit of RM1.13 million.

iDimension shares closed unchanged at 2.5 sen today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM6.8 million.

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