Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on December 5, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR): Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has publicly reprimanded G Neptune Bhd and four former directors of the Guidance Note No 3 (GN3) company for delaying the issuance of its annual report, and for announcing an inaccurate quarterly report that may have affected investors’ investment decisions.

In a statement yesterday, Bursa Malaysia said G Neptune only issued its annual report for the 18-month financial period ended June 30, 2017 on May 17, 2018, after a six-and-a-half-month delay from the stipulated deadline.

The company also failed to ensure that its quarterly report for the financial period ended June 30, 2017 — announced on Aug 29, 2017 — was accurate and contained sufficient information to enable investors to make informed investment decisions, said the regulator.

As such, G Neptune had breached Rules 9.23(1) and 9.16(1)(a) of the ACE Market listing requirements, it added.

“G Neptune had reported an unaudited loss after tax and minority interest of RM1,299,174 in the quarterly report, as compared to an audited loss after tax and minority interest of RM8,587,693 in the audited financial statements for the 18-months financial period ended June 30, 2017 announced on May 4, 2018, which represented a deviation of 561% or RM7.289 million.

“The deviation was mainly due to an impairment loss arising from the writing off of prepayments and deposits paid to a supplier of RM7,239,307,” said Bursa Securities.

Bursa Securities fined the four individuals – former executive director Khoo Yick Keung and former independent non-executive directors Chan Lai Yi, Lo Yin Ling, and Tansri Singadju Benui – a total of RM262,000 for permitting G Neptune to commit the delay and listing requirement breaches.

The regulator slammed the directors for failing to “discharge their duty, particularly to make enquiries or assessment” on the recoverability or impairment of the deposit.

Specifically, Bursa Securities found "no reasonable justification or change of circumstances" for Khoo to only make the decision to write off the deposit after the due date for the issuance of the annual report, and two months post-announcement of its quarterly report on August 29, 2017.

G Neptune shares settled unchanged at 6.5 sen apiece yesterday, after 810,000 shares were done, for a market capitalisation of RM18.77 million.

It recently submitted an application to Bursa Securities seeking an extension of time of up to Jan 3, 2020 to submit its regularisation plan.

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