Maika shareholder: 'How did they come up with 80 sen offer?'

By G Vinod
PETALING JAYA: An irate shareholder has questioned tycoon G Gnanalingam’s offer to buy out financially-troubled Maika Holdings for RM100 million in view of the fact that the company’s accounts had not been audited since 2007.
The deal, according to S Nadarajah, also contravened regulations listed by the Securities Commission.
“There was an annual general meeting in 2007 but the AGM was nullified by the court due to the way it was conducted.
“Since then, no AGM has been called to pass its resolutions.
“So my question is, how did they come up with 80 sen per share offer in the first place?” he asked.
The 2007 Maika AGM was abruptly aborted after angry shareholders raised their voices and fists at the board members over the accounts.
In April, at the height of the Barisan Nasional battle to wrest the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat from Pakatan Rakyat, Gnanalingam's firm, G Team Resources, offered a conditional buyout of Maika shares for RM100 million and pay back the money invested by the 66,000 long-suffering Indian shareholders, 1,500 of whom allegedly live in and around Hulu Selangor.
Each shareholder would stand to get 80 sen per share.
Gnanalingan said the offer reflected the actual RM1 per share value after taking into consideration the 25 million bonus shares offered over the years
Shareholders would be given 21 days to redeem their shares beginning June 1-June 22.
80 sen value is wrong
Speaking to FMT today, Nadarajah also slammed the independent adviser for the acquisition, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd, for failing to address this matter.
“How can this entity advise shareholders to accept this offer when it is not based on audited accounts, which is against SC’s regulation?” he asked, adding that the SC should have reprimanded Maika for pursuing it due to the irregularities.
Nadarajah, who urged the SC to intervene, has also called for an independent audit to be done on Maika to straighten things out.
“With an independent audit, we can find out the actual per share value of Maika to date before considering any takeover offer,” he said, pointing out that even the existing offer of 80 sen was wrong.
“Gnanalingam made an offer based on the 2008 management account, while Kenanga’s recommendation is based on the 2009 management account, which is contradicting in nature,” he said.