Tussle at Petra Perdana heats up

The tussle for control of oil and gas outfit Petra Perdana Bhd (PPB) is heating up with the company rejecting the nomination of four individuals to the company’s board at its upcoming AGM on June 28.

The nominations were made by parties aligned to Tengku Ibrahim Petra Tengku Indra Petra, who is at loggerheads with PPB’s board led by managing director Shamsul Saad and executive director Datuk Henry Kho Poh Eng.

In a statement yesterday, PPB’s board said it had made the decision after seeking legal counsel and was advised that the nominations had not been made in accordance with the law.

“The board had found that the nominations by the shareholders do not comply with the minimum requirements to nominate parties to the office of directors,” said Shamsul.

The nominated individuals were John Pang Yun Nian, who is with the CIMB group, and nominated by Chow Lean Keat; Datuk Syed Norulzaman Syed Kamarulzaman who was nominated by Tengku Ibrahim’s wife Datin Che Nariza Hashim; Suhaimi Badrul Jamil who is Che Nariza’s brother-in-law and nominated by Ramilah Joannah Sulaiman; and Datuk Shaik Sulaiman S Mohamed Ismail, nominated by Nik Ismail Tengku Besar Indra Raja.

When contacted by The Edge Financial Daily last night, Che Nariza said: “It’s now 10.30 (pm), I have yet to receive any letter (from PPB). I sent in the nomination on June 11. The AGM is on June 28.”
According to PPB’s latest annual report, Tengku Ibrahim and Che Nariza collectively control about 12.9% equity interest in the company, while the rest are not among the top 30 shareholders as at April 30, 2010.

In its media release, PPB said it would be addressing and circulating the nominations of the four individuals to the board prior to the company’s AGM.

“We take nominations by shareholders to the board seriously, but we need to ensure that such nominations comply with the necessary rules and regulations,” Shamsul said in PBB’s media release.

According to PPB’s announcement to Bursa Malaysia Securities, a letter informing the shareholders of their non-compliance to the nomination process was sent and copied to the Registrar of the Kuala Lumpur High Court, the Managing Judge of the Kuala Lumpur High Court and other relevant parties.

The letter also stated that if the shareholders wished to file any ex-parte application against PPB, the company would require them to provide the notice of any mention or hearing date of such application and to serve on the company a copy of all cause papers as well as to bring the reply letter to the court’s attention.

The latest nominations came the day after pilgrim fund Lembaga Tabung Haji’s (LTH) nomination on Monday of Hamdan Rasid, currently a director of TH Plantations Sdn Bhd, to PPB’s board.

Insiders said LTH could be acting in concert with Tengku Ibrahim, and they were hoping to block the re-election of four directors at the AGM, namely Surya Hidayat Abd Malik, Shamsul, Raja Anuar Abu Hassan and Idris Zaidel.

LTH is PPB’s fourth largest shareholder controlling 10.16%. Other substantial shareholders are state-controlled investment fund Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), which has about 20.33%, and the Shamsul-Kho faction, which collectively have about 13.35%.

In February this year, Tengku Ibrahim, Che Nariza, Suhaimi, and another director Wong Fook Heng were ousted from PPB’s board by the rival faction. Tengku Ibrahim was the executive chairman and CEO of PPB.

Last week, Tengku Ibrahim, and parties linked to him, including Robert Lee Mee Jiong and Suhaimi, stepped down from the board of Petra Energy Bhd, a 29.6% unit of PPB, just before a scheduled EGM that was requisitioned by the Shamsul-Kho faction for their removal.

Both factions have been looking to elicit the support of politically connected businessman Datuk Bustari Yusof, who has a 30% stake in PEB. Some quarters said the trio’s departure from PEB was a tactical move, while others said that the move indicated that Bustari did not favour them.

The dispute between the two factions surfaced after PPB sold a large stake in PEB and three offshore support vessels to the latter late last year. The vessels were bought by PEB to service a RM1.1 billion Shell job in Sarawak.

Meanwhile, trading volume on PPB had picked up slightly last week, breaching the 2.9 million unit mark on June 17, its highest since April 13, 2010. The stock has also gained momentum, strengthening some 37% since hitting its 52-week low of RM1.05 on May 25.

PPB closed at RM1.44 yesterday, slipping three sen, while PEB ended trading at RM1.42, down two sen.



Written by Jose Barrock
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, June 23, 2010.