Sunday 15 June 2014

Bernas: are all minority shareholders really treated fair and equal? (2)

I wrote before about the privatisation exercise of Bernas,

In a new twist to this story, The Malaysian Insider published the following article:

"Story behind Syed Mokhtar’s ‘RM2.25 billion tax-exempt’ Bernas deal revealed, says PKR MP"

In it is again allegedly confirmed that minority shareholders of Bernas are not treated the same:


"In the letter, Syed Mokhtar gave his personal undertaking that he would guarantee the national interests of rice in Malaysia. In the relisting of Bernas, 10% shares of Bernas IPO will be allotted to Putrajaya for the National Farmers Association (Nafas) and the National Fisherman Association (Nekmat). Syed Mokhtar also pledged annual contributions to the welfare programmes of Nafas and Nekmat for five years or until the relisting exercise of Bernas was completed."


And that is simply not allowed, according to the rules.

Will the authorities (Securities Commission and/or Bursa Malaysia) investigate the above and take any action, if appropriate? I guess we have to wait and see, even if action is taken it can often take a very long while.

The shares of Bernas have been removed from the Official List of Bursa Securities with effect from 9.00 a.m., Friday, 18 April 2014.

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