KUALA LUMPUR (June 15): Caely Holdings Bhd's share price rose for the first time in about two weeks on Wednesday (June 15) after the lingerie maker climbed as much as seven sen or 19% to 44 sen, despite news that the boardroom tussle at the company has intensified, with the requisitionists of an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) claiming they have successfully removed nine directors, including the son-in-law of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who was just appointed as executive vice-chairman a day earlier.

At the closing bell on Wednesday, Caely's shares pared some gains to close at 42.5 sen, still up 14.86% or 5.5 sen, after some 1.94 million shares changed hands. At the current price, the lingerie maker has a market capitalisation of RM109.75 million.

Fashion designer Datuk Jovian Mandagie, who is Ismail Sabri's son-in-law, joined Caely's board on Tuesday, together with lawyer Sandraruben Neelamagham, whom Caely announced would be its new independent director.

In a bourse filing on Wednesday, Caely said its group executive chairman Datuk Loh Ming Choon has declared that the group's EGM scheduled to be held on the same day is adjourned, pending the final determination of a lawsuit in court. Caely said Loh had been advised by the group's legal adviser that the subject matter of the EGM was sub judice and so it could not lawfully continue with the meeting, which carried 12 resolutions.

The lawsuit mentioned was one Caely filed in March this year at the Kuala Lumpur High Court against three shareholders who claimed they held in total at least 10% stake in the group — namely Leong Seng Wui, Kok Kwang Lim and Valhalla Capital Sdn Bhd. The trio were the ones who requisitioned for the EGM to remove its existing board members.

However, in a statement released on Wednesday that contradicted the group's bourse filing on the same day, the requisitionists claimed they have removed nine Caely board members, including Jovian and Sandraruben.

The seven others removed were Loh Ming Choon, Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria, Sin Hock Min, Wong Siaw Puie, Ng Mei Choo, Khoo Chen Yeng and Koh Mui Tee. Only Datin Fong Nyok Yoon, a non-executive, non-independent director, remains on the board.

Meanwhile, they claimed four new directors — Leong Seng Wui, Kang Chez Chiang, Ng Keok Chai and Krishnan Dorairaju — have been appointed to the board. Leong, an executive director of Green Packet Bhd, was also unanimously voted in as the new Caely chairman.

The requisitionists also claimed the EGM adjournment is invalid, citing Article 82 of the company's constitution, which they said states that any adjournment has to be put to vote, and that there is no injunction obtained to adjourn the EGM.

Caely has been in the spotlight in the past two months after it announced on April 20 that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had issued a freeze order on all of its bank accounts. Prior to that, on April 7, the group said it had appointed Virdos Lima Consultancy (M) Sdn Bhd as forensic auditor to carry out an independent forensic audit on allegedly suspicious and irregular transactions at the group, following a tip-off received by one of its directors.

This led to the group's stock sliding from 56.5 sen on April 7 to as low as 37 sen in mid-May. It then went into a see-saw, before hitting a steady downtrend from May 31.

Nevertheless, the counter has risen 21.43% year to date from 35 sen, and 93.18% from when it was trading at 22 sen a year ago.

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Boardroom tussle at Caely intensifies