KUALA LUMPUR: Arriving mere minutes after the Petra Perdana Bhd’s AGM was to commence nearly caused a small group of shareholders to be locked out of the meeting.
The group of shareholders, including former CEO Tengku Ibrahim Petra Tengku Indra Petra’s wife Datin Che Nariza Hajjar Hashim and family members, was initially refused entry for arriving slightly after 11am.
Taken aback, they objected and words were exchanged.
Nariza raised her voice at one point and said “this is my company” when she was barred from entering the heavily guarded building.
However, the issue was resolved quickly and the latecomers eventually allowed to attend the highly anticipated meeting that lasted about four hours without any untoward incident.
All the resolutions were passed at the AGM with the exception of the company’s proposed name change while five other resolutions pertaining to the re-election of directors were not tabled due to a court order
The High Court ordered the chairman of the meeting to adjourn the AGM to July 20 for the re-election and election of directors.
The re-election of four existing directors – Surya Hidayat Abd Malik, Shamsul Saad, Raja Annuar Raja Abu Hassan and Idris Zaidel – and the election of Lembaga Tabung Haji’s candidate Hamdan Rasid will be tabled at next month’s meeting.
The meeting will also decide on the candidates for directors nominated by Nariza, Nik Ismail Tengku Besar Indra Raja and Ramilah Joannah Sulaiman,
Meanwhile, Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG) corporate services general manager Lya Rahman said the AGM was professionally conducted and there were no untoward incidents.
“Shareholders were very active and raised lots of questions,” she said. MSWG also witnessed the counting of the ballot at the AGM.
Managing director Shamsul Saad said the proposed name change for the company to Perdana Petroleum Bhd failed to receive at least 75% of votes.
“It was just short of votes. The majority voted for it (change of name) but since it is a special resolution we needed 75% votes,” he said after the AGM.
Shamsul said shareholders also approved the private placement of new shares to Nam Cheong Dockyard Sdn Bhd.
Last Friday, Petra Perdana was given the green light for the private placement of 10% of its paid-up share capital to Nam Cheong.
A shareholder who declined to be named said it was rather unfair for the shareholders to vote on the resolution as they were given very limited time to digest the information.
“What if Bursa Malaysia has not approved the placement? What is the hurry? Will the company go bankrupt if we don’t get the investment from Nam Cheong?” he asked.
Shamsul said the private placement was expected to raise RM38mil to RM40mil.
“The private placement will strengthen the company’s financial status, bring on board a strategic partner and allow us to continue with our fleet renewal plan; (all) important for the growth of the company,” he said.
The private placement is likely to be completed soon while the renounceable rights issue is slated to be concluded by year-end. The rights issue is expected to raise RM60mil.
Executive director Datuk Henry Kho said the corporate exercises were to raise funds to facilitate the financing of new vessels, repay borrowings and to be used as working capital.
To a question, he said Petra Perdana had managed to reduce its gearing to about RM250mil currently. Its gearing was RM440mil and RM660mil in 2009 and 2008 respectively.
Shamsul said the company would look into 29.6% associate Petra Energy Bhd’s invitation to nominate members to the latter’s board.
“It was very gracious of them to invite us (to join the board). We have yet to decide who and how many directors to nominate,” he said, adding that Petra Perdana would make a decision after Petra Energy’s AGM today.
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