KUALA LUMPUR (April 16): In what appears to be an escalating boardroom tussle, Seacera Group Bhd’s chairman has adjourned the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) that was supposed to be held today to a later, unspecified date.

The EGM was to seek shareholders’ approval for the company to undertake a proposed capitalisation and private placement to raise some RM24.6 million, based on a share issuance and placement price of 21 sen apiece.

However, substantial shareholder Datuk Tan Wei Lian, who is also the chairman of Tiger Synergy Bhd, has made efforts to block the fund-raising exercise, which will dilute existing shareholdings.

According to Seacera's filing with Bursa Malaysia today, cause papers have been served to the company yesterday for an application for injunction to, among others, restrain its directors from exercising their powers during the EGM of the company until a final judgment or order in this proceeding is made.

This application was, however, struck out by judge Nantha Balan E S Moorthy.

Another cause paper served to Seacera was for an application for injunction to restrain the company from acting upon any resolutions that may be passed during the EGM. To this application, the judge has granted an ad interim injunction.

Hence, Seacera may not act upon any resolutions made during the EGM until a final ruling on the matter is imposed by the judge.

Seacera's official stance is that proceeds from the private placement are to settle some RM31.38 million of RM68.04 million that the group owes its creditors.

Under the proposal, the group intends to issue 149.09 million new shares and place out 126.34 million shares of its existing issued share capital to third-party investors yet to be identified.

Last week, Seacera told Bursa Malaysia that it had filed a legal action seeking a declaration that a notice of intention and a notice of EGM, sent out by Tan, were null and void.

Tan sent out the notices to Seacera on March 28 to have an EGM held on April 29, proposing the removal of two Seacera directors, to be replaced by himself and four others.

Today, one of Seacera's independent non-executive director Datuk Md Zubir Ansori Yahaya has stepped down from his position. Seacera said in a separate filing that Zubir's resignation was due to "personal reasons".

Shares of Seacera closed up 1.5 sen or 4.84% to 32.5 sen for a market capitalisation of RM154.15 million.