This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 8, 2021 - November 14, 2021

Last Monday, Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd announced an “intention to deal during closed period”, and that its directors and substantial shareholders were looking to trade the company’s warrants and shares. One of them is managing director and CEO Datuk Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah.

There were no other announcements following that.

The “intention to deal during closed period” comes as a surprise as trading of the company’s shares has been suspended since Oct 22. And the reason is because Serba Dinamik failed to disclose the findings of a Special Independent Review (SIR) undertaken by Ernst & Young Consulting Sdn Bhd (EY), which came about after external auditors KPMG flagged in May what it alleged were more than RM4.54 billion in questionable transactions.

While Serba Dinamik said its independent directors who were present at an EY briefing on the SIR felt it was premature to release the findings, Bursa Malaysia has stood its ground and suspended the trading of the company’s shares and warrants indefinitely after it failed to disclose the findings presented at the briefing by the stipulated date of Oct 26.

Now, Serba Dinamik’s shares and warrants have been suspended from trading for more than 10 working days, and there is no inkling as to whether the management led by Abdul Karim intends to make public EY’s findings.

Prior to the trading suspension on Oct 22, Abdul Karim had been acquiring shares of Serba Dinamik, and disposed of his block of more than 107 million warrants for RM4.3 million. Others such as Datuk Awang Daud Awang Putera, who is a non-independent non-executive director, had also been selling the stock, while another non-independent non-executive director, Datuk Abdul Kadier Sahib, had been acquiring the company’s shares.

Will the regulators be looking into the share trading activities of these individuals at a time when they could have had access to sensitive information on Serba Dinamik?

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