Shares of JETSON ED further force-sold

Kumpulan Jetson Bhd’s executive director Chow Chee Kin, who months earlier generated controversy when he raised his stake in the company and raised the possibility of triggering a general offer, has instead seen his shareholding pared due to forced-selling by an investment bank.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Jetson announced that 131,500 shares belonging to Chow, which represented 0.22% of the company’s issued share capital, had been force-sold by Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd yesterday. He now holds 3.42% or 2.072 million shares in Jetson.

It is unclear at what price the shares were sold for. Jetson’s share price yesterday shed three sen to close at a 52-week low of RM1.04 with 265,500 shares traded. This suggests Chow’s force-sold shares accounted for half of the day’s volume. Jetson’s shares had traded to a 52-week high of RM3.10 on Nov 16, 2009, and has plunged 59.1% year-to-date.

Yesterday’s transaction was the fourth tranche of Chow’s shares that have been forced-sold since late August, which has seen his stake reduced by a total of 527,900 shares.

According to Bursa Malaysia filings, there was forced selling on Sept 7 by Kenanga Investment of some 156,400 shares held by Chow. Weeks earlier, his shareholding was slashed with forced selling of some 199,000 and 41,000 shares on Aug 25 and Sept 2 respectively.

Jetson’s closing prices ranged between RM1.10 and RM1.26 on those dates. Based on the closing prices of Jetson when his shares were forced-sold, Chow may have lost almost 37% and 48% of his investment made just five months earlier, at RM2 per share.

Not long after the Naza brothers Sheikh Mohd Nasarudin and Sheik Mohd Faliq bought into Jetson last year, Chow, a former group chief financial officer of Naza Motor Trading Sdn Bhd, had built up his stake to 4.29% or 2.6 million shares in Jetson.

He had initially acquired 1.6 million Jetson shares at RM2 apiece on April 27, 2010 and a further one million shares at RM2 per share on May 10. The company’s share price had closed RM1.99 and RM1.93 respectively on April 27 and May 10.

Certain quarters had alleged then that Chow’s stake at 4.29% triggered a MGO if he had acted in concert with the Naza brothers. However, Jetson told the stock exchange on June 16 that Chow and the brothers were not acting in concert.

It was perceived then that all was not well with Jetson’s board, which was further corroborated with the subsequent cancellation of construction contracts for two of the Naza group’s largest property projects - Platinum Park and Matrade. Early this month, Naza Group’s TTDI KL Metropolis Sdn Bhd (TKLM) terminated the shareholders’ agreement with Jetson to build a new trade exhibition centre for the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) on a joint-venture basis.

Jetson had said the termination arose from disagreements on certain commercial terms relating to the project costs for the Matrade centre in Jalan Dutamas which was expected to cost RM628 million. The project was to be undertaken through TTDI Jetson Sdn Bhd – a joint venture between TTDI KL Metropolis and Jetson.

“On Sept 3, 2010 citing the non-receipt of an unequivocal response from the company in relation to such commercial terms, TKLM issued the notice of termination,” Jetson had said in a filing statement to Bursa Malaysia.


Written by Yong Min Wei  
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, September 21, 2010.