KUALA LUMPUR (April 27): Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd (BHIC) said it is unaware of any arrangements leading to the unusual trading of its shares.

It was responding to the claim by the National Patriots Association (Patriot) in a statement on April 15 that BHIC shares were sold at low prices, despite there being higher offers.

“We would like to clarify that the BHIC board of directors and its major shareholders have confirmed that they are neither aware nor involved in any arrangements leading to any unusual market activity of BHIC’s share price on those dates mentioned by Patriot in the article,” BHIC said, referring to a Focus Malaysia article published on April 15.

The article cited Patriot as saying that BHIC shares were sold at low prices two days in a row, on April 13 and 14.

“A certain party sold BHIC shares at lower prices when there were already bids from others to buy much higher. This is illogical unless someone is desperately trying to press down the stock price with an ulterior motive to gain a majority stake,” the association had said.

Patriot president Brigadier-General Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji said the share price of BHIC would have been traded if not for the alleged selldown and unloading of significant quantities of shares to roll back the price.

A week later, on April 23, the association issued another statement expressing its disappointment over Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd’s disposal of 1.2 million BHIC shares in the open market.

Urusharta Jamaah is a vehicle set up under the Ministry of Finance that was tasked to take over the underperforming assets of Lembaga Tabung Haji, as part of the pilgrim fund’s restructuring in December 2018.

“The predators have been at work manipulating BHIC shares for several months, more vigorously since early March, and all-out assaults since mid-April. It is impossible for the boards of LTAT and the Boustead group, and Bursa Malaysia not to notice. 

“Staying quiet and doing nothing — watching the share price of BHIC battered down is a dereliction of their duties. Ultimately, the defence minister is answerable and has to take responsibility for discrepancies in the armed forces welfare fund,” said Mohamed Arshad.

He also highlighted that some 18.65 million shares were transferred from Urusharta to Citigroup Nominees Sdn Bhd.

Patriot demanded an explanation from the finance and defence ministries, as well as the boards of Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera and Boustead, and urged them to take action.
 
BHIC shares fell 1.5 sen or 2.56% to 57 sen today, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM141.62 million.