PROTASCO Bhd vice-chairman and group managing director Datuk Seri Chong Ket Pen is confident that minority shareholders will support the proposal to remove its non-executive directors Tey Por Yee and Ooi Kock Aun this week.
Chong said the shareholders have been long with the company, since its establishment in 1990 and listing in 2003, and they understand and know what the company is all about.
“The shareholders know me and I’m confident I will get their support ... I have the numbers,” Chong told Business Times in an interview yesterday.
The civil engineering, construction, education services provider and property company will be holding two extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) — one tomorrow, followed by another on Friday.
The first EGM will call on shareholders to vote on resolutions to remove Tey and his associate and fellow board member Ooi. The shareholders behind this move are Chong (via a private company) and Tan Heng Kui, another Protasco director.
The second EGM was jointly requisitioned by Tey and a company he controls to oust Chong from the board.
Based on the latest filings on Bursa Malaysia, Chong’s direct and indirect interest in Protasco is 22.4 per cent while Tey’s stake stands at 17.1 per cent.
Protasco has some 6,000 shareholders with the top 200 shareholders owning a combined 78 per cent stake.
“If Tey and Ooi are removed in the first EGM, the second EGM will still be held. In the end, it’s a numbers game,” said Chong.
He clarified that the EGM is not a boardroom tussle and is not a personal fight between him and Tey and Ooi.
“It is about the Protasco management recovering US$27 million (RM90.2 million),” said Chong.
He declined to comment further as the case is already in court and he does not want to subjudice proceedings.
Chong added that the ongoing legal suit and the dispute has not affected Protasco’s image and operations and the company is due to announce its third quarter financial results ended September 2014 today.
Chong also took to task the personal attacks launched by Tey on chairman Tan Sri Dr Hadenan A. Jalil for being biased and impartial.
“The chairman is doing the best he could as chairman and is acting in the interest of the shareholders,” said Chong.
Protasco had, in September, filed a suit against Indonesia’s oil and gas firm PT Anglo Slavic Utama to recover US$27 million in monies paid, and against Tey and Ooi for conspiracy to defraud, hiding their beneficial interests in PT ASU, making secret profits and breach of their fiduciary and statutory duties.
Protasco had attempted to buy a 63 per cent stake in PT Anglo Slavic Indonesia but the deal was terminated after fraud was allegedly discovered.
In return, Tey filed a derivative action early this week against six board members of RS Maha Niaga Sdn Bhd, including Chong, to recover RM10 million for Protasco.
Protasco has healthy cash flows and low debt levels, with roughly RM180 million in retained profit as at the first quarter ended March 31 this year.