NWP sues two directors over alleged fraudulent transactions

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 17): NWP Holdings Bhd has sued its managing director Datuk Seri Kee Soon Ling and independent non-executive director Yew Onn Chong over alleged fraudulent transactions.

In a statement on Monday (Jan 17), the timber products manufacturer said the new management of the group had discovered a series of fraudulent transactions allegedly undertaken by Kee and Yew from 2016 to 2021, which had caused NWP and its subsidiaries to suffer losses and damages.

The group said Kee and Yew had permitted and/or authorised the fraudulent transactions to be recorded and captured in NWP’s consolidated financial statements, which were submitted to Bursa Malaysia.

The suit was initiated by NWP and its wholly-owned subsidiaries NWP O&M Sdn Bhd, NWP Aquatech Sdn Bhd and NWP Builder Sdn Bhd.

The group is seeking RM6.5 million in damages from Kee and Yew, as well as an order to bar the two men from being directors of the group for five years, and restrain them from exercising the voting rights attached to the ordinary shares of the group.

Shareholders’ personal info leaked

In a bourse filing earlier on Monday, NWP said it was replacing One Capital Market Services Sdn Bhd with Aldpro Corporate Services Sdn Bhd as its share registrar with immediate effect.

This, it said, was to preserve the integrity of NWP’s record of depositors, which it claimed was leaked to third parties on Jan 10 without the group’s knowledge.

NWP appointed One Capital as share registrar on Nov 12 last year.

The group said it has commenced an investigation into how and in what manner the third parties had access to the full copy of NWP’s record of depositors, which contains shareholders’ personal information such as their full names, central depository system account numbers, identity card numbers and addresses.

“In the interim, the company had written to One Capital Market Services, Affin Hwang Nominees (Tempatan) Sdn Bhd Pledged Securities Account for Datuk Tan Lik Houe, and Maybank Nominees (Tempatan) Sdn Bhd Pledged Securities Account for Chang Huan Soon, to demand for written explanations,” the group said.

Meanwhile, NWP also alleged that a notice dated Dec 30, 2021 on Tan’s ownership of a direct 5.055% stake comprising 26.61 million shares in NWP was false and misleading, as Tan had never been the registered holder of the shares.

“As such, the company had instructed its solicitors to demand Datuk Tan to rectify the notice,” the group said.

NWP, which last year changed its financial year end from Aug 31 to Feb 28, reported a net loss of RM2.9 million for financial year 2016 (FY16). The net loss swelled to RM12.68 million for FY17 and RM17.63 million for FY18, RM6.34 million for FY19, and RM10.69 million for FY21.

NWP’s share price closed 12.5% or 2.5 sen lower at 17.5 sen, its lowest level since May last year. At this price, the group’s market capitalisation stands at RM92 million.

Read also: NWP fires share registrar, claims record of depositors leaked to third parties without consent

S Kanagaraju