Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (June 5): Having lost more than RM3 billion in the span of a week, Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd is in the spotlight with many waiting to see if the company’s woes have just started or whether it will regain its lost lustre, with external auditors KPMG proven to be wrong in taking the company to task for more than RM4.54 billion in allegedly questionable transactions.

Thus far Serba Dinamik via its managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah has said the company has not done anything wrong, and that Serba Dinamik’s fundamentals are intact.   

While in the midst of appointing an independent audit firm to assess the audit concerns raised by KPMG, Serba Dinamik’s situation has been worsened with long-time substantial shareholder Kumpulan Wang Amanah Persaraan (Diperbadankan), or KWAP, selling down its stake to below the 5% threshold. Prior to the accounting issues surfacing, KWAP had 5.25% and had been a substantial shareholder since September 2017.

Other substantial shareholders the Employees Provident Fund, which has 10.18%, and Permodalan Nasional Bhd, which via its various funds has more than 5%, have raised concerns too.

Non-independent non-executive director and 16.17% shareholder Datuk Abdul Kadier Sahib has sought to requisition an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove KPMG and appoint BDO as the company’s new external auditors, but this move came under fire from both the Minority Shareholders Watch Group and the Institutional Investors Council, so much so that Abdul Kadier withdrew his plans for the EGM and removal of KPMG.

Meanwhile one of Serba Dinamik’s largest jobs to date — a RM7.7 billion contract for engineering, procurement and construction of innovation hub, academic campus, related facilities and infrastructure in Abu Dhabi awarded by Block 7 Investments LLC and secured in April 2020 — has also come under the spotlight, with questions of who actually controls Block 7, and if it is linked to Abdul Karim.

With so much going on, will Serba Dinamik ever regain its lost glory?   

Read more about it in The Edge Malaysia weekly’s June 7 edition.

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