Ng brothers question handling of suspension by Revenue Group's board, claim it lacked due process

Wednesday 24 Apr 2024

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 17): The brothers and suspended directors of Revenue Group Bhd, Brian Ng Shih Chiow and Dino Ng Shih Fang, claimed they were unaware as to why they were suspended, since they have asked the company's board to explain the situation, but there has been no response.

At a press conference on Tuesday (Jan 17), the siblings, who hold a combined stake of 23.077% in the e-payment solution company, complained about the company's lack of due process before suspending their executive director functions.

Noting that no details were announced to Bursa Malaysia to specify the allegations, they attempted to seek explanations from the company but to no avail.

"Until today, we still have not received formal suspension letters from the company on removing our executive director functions; we were informed verbally [instead]," said Brian.

"We are getting opinions from our legal adviser at this moment. We will let our legal adviser advise us on the next actions to take," Dino said.

Both also denied any alleged wrongdoings.

When asked why they carted away some 30 boxes of documents and items without board clearance, they stressed that they had filed a police report before the action and claimed they were their personal belongings.

"In my opinion, as a director, we still have the right to access our stuff. There are no important or jeopardised documents or material to the company. We are very much compliant with the law.

"I would like to emphasise that most critical data and documents are already in the cloud. We do not hold anything on that," Dino said.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, they refuted the allegations against them concerning the non-delivery of thermal paper rolls and refusal to transfer the ownership of a vehicle (Toyota Vellfire — BPR 3108) to the company.

Meanwhile, the group's bourse filing on Monday (Jan 16) showed that Brian served a notice of requisition to the group last Friday (Jan 13) to call for an extraordinary general meeting to remove its current board of directors, save for him and Dino.

He said the reason to remove nine directors from the board is that the current size of board members is bloated and needs to galvanise the company's underlying inherent and strong fundamentals.

The nine current directors he wants to be removed are: chairman Nor Azzam Abdul Jalil, managing director-cum-alternative chairman Eddie Ng Chee Siong, Ng Chee Keong, Lai Wei Keat, Loo Jo Anne, Jade Lee Gaik Suan, Alwizah Al-Yafii Ahmad Kamal, Ooi Guan Hoe and Tham Sai Cheong.

Eddie is also a co-founder of Revenue Group. He has no familial relationship with Brian and Dino.

Besides removing the nine, Brian wants to appoint three others in their stead. The three are: Datuk Ammar Shaikh Mahmood Naim, Chong Yu Cheang and Adinor Mohamed Yunus as directors of Revenue Group.

The resolutions also consist of the cancellation of shares buyback, private placement and diversification to property development.

On a separate note, UOB KayHian said in a report that the ongoing tussle between the major shareholders might continue serving as an overhang on the share price as it creates uncertainty towards the group's strategic focus in the future.

The research outfit rated a 'sell' call with a target price of 45 sen for Revenue Group, as it reckoned that the company's share price might continue to underperform in the short term given the uncertainty.

It viewed that potential diversification into property investment may further drag the company's performance given the company's core business has always been in e-payment since its commencement.

Revenue Group's share price closed nine sen or 12% lower at 66 sen, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM318 million.

Edited ByIsabelle Francis

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