KUALA LUMPUR (April 23): Seacera Group Bhd said today that it has detected unusual market activities concerning the trading of its securities.

"Based on the investigation and analysis conducted by the company, the unusual market activities detected by the company include, inter alia, activities of shares churning and passing-around, and misleading appearance of price of the company's securities on the stock exchange," it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.

Following that, Seacera said it has engaged with the relevant stock broking house as well as solicitors to take necessary actions in the matter, though it did not specify what they would be.

It is worth noting that Seacera's management is currently embroiled in a boardroom tussle with its single largest shareholder, Datuk William Tan Wei Lian.

Last Friday, Seacera's board of directors announced it was taking legal action against Tan and several others for sending out an unlawful notice of extraordinary general meeting.

The group said the EGM notice it received from these shareholders on April 15 contravened the Companies Act 2016, as Tan and those acting with him controlled only 7.98% stake in the company at the time, but had claimed to hold at least 10%.
 
However, Seacera's stock exchange filing on April 18 showed that Tan had been accumulating shares in the company and had held a direct 13.73% interest in the company himself before April 15. He later raised his direct stake to 16.36% as at April 17.

Tan had called for the EGM to be held on May 15 to appoint six new directors and to remove eight existing ones.

Shares of Seacera closed down 1.5 sen or 4.62% today at 31 sen with a market capitalisation of RM147.04 million.