EVENING 5: VS Industry sues NEP, directors, for oppression

The Edge TV

In today’s edition of Evening 5 — VS Industry is suing NEP Holdings and three directors for oppression, after the company was ghosted. Meanwhile, new ACE Market-entrant Daythree Digital saw a strong debut.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:04 Electronics manufacturing services provider VS Industry has filed an oppression lawsuit

00:09 against NAP Holdings Malaysia and three of its directors, alleging the directors had conducted

00:14 or exercised their powers as directors of NAP in a manner that was oppressive or unfairly

00:20 prejudicial to VS Industry or its interest as a member of NAP. The directors named are Lim Chang

00:26 Huat, Lim Chee Kon and Chow Chun Poy alias Chow Chan Leong. In a boss filing, VS Industry explained

00:33 that in view of the lack of visibility as to the financial position of NAP, the company is seeking

00:38 an order for NAP to be wound up and two private liquidators to step in and investigate the affairs

00:43 of NAP. The two liquidators are Datuk Uy Woon Chee and Wong Chin Yong of DC Restructuring Solutions.

00:51 According to VS Industry, the originating summons was filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on July

00:56 25th. To recap, in July 2016, VS Industry entered into a subscription agreement with NAP and Chang

01:03 Huat to subscribe for up to 20% of new ordinary shares in NAP for a total cash consideration of

01:10 up to RM60 million. VS Industry claimed that NAP had not held any board directors meetings for more

01:15 than two years since May 2021, despite numerous requests and attempts. NAP also did not hold its

01:22 annual general meeting for both FY 2021 and FY 2022. In addition, VS Industry points out that

01:29 NAP's audited financial statements for FY 2021 and FY 2022 were not available and circulated to its

01:37 shareholders, nor were they tabled at its AGM. VS Industry added that NAP has not declared any

01:43 dividend or made any payment to its shareholders for FY 2020, even though it made a net profit of

01:48 RM19.87 million for that financial year, despite the fact that its dividend policy is to pay 50%

01:55 of its profits. VS Industry says that this lawsuit is not expected to have any material financial

02:01 and operational impact to the company, adding that the group's carrying amount of investment

02:05 in NAP stood at RM7 million.

02:13 Alliance Bank Malaysia expects net interest margin compression in FY 2024 as competition

02:19 for deposits remains stiff. The bank recorded NIM of 2.64% for FY 2023 from 2.53% in FY 2022

02:29 against a backdrop of four consecutive hikes of 100 BPS to the overnight policy rate last year.

02:35 Bank Negara paused the hikes in January and March before implementing another 25 BPS in May this

02:41 year, pushing the key policy rate to 3%. Group CEO Kelly Kam thinks that the bank will be able

02:47 to get NIM for the full year to around 2.5% to 2.55%. Kam also expects the bank's gross

02:54 impaired loans ratio to rise to 3% in FY 2024 as a higher interest rate environment continues to

03:00 weigh on debt borrowers as borrowing costs increase. However, he is quick to point out

03:06 that Alliance is well covered as over 70% of its book is collateralized and its loan loss coverage

03:12 ratio is still about 123%. While Kam admits that it expects further pressures throughout the year,

03:19 he doesn't expect JIL to be over the 3% mark. Alliance is looking at stronger loan growth of

03:25 between 8 and 10% in FY 2024 from 6.2% in FY 2023, driven by its core segments, namely the SMEs and

03:34 commercial businesses. Kam said the bank believes those segments will continue to perform at double

03:39 digit growth, with SMEs at 12% and commercial businesses at 13%.

03:43 Day 3 digital share price opened at 65 cent on Wednesday on its debut on the ACE market,

03:54 which presents a premium of 117% over its distinct price of 30 cent. It was among

03:59 Wurster Malaysia's most actively traded, with over 141.7 million shares changing hands. Day 3's

04:06 counter managed to hit an intraday high of 73 cent, but was unable to hold on to its sky-high

04:11 gains and eventually ended Wednesday at 62.5 cent. This is still 108% higher than its initial public

04:19 offering price. Managing Director Raymond Davidas says Day 3's IPO will be a platform to attract

04:25 both regional brands and foreign talents, as well as broaden its regional footprint. He explains

04:30 that the recent brands that the group has on board are looking at regional brands, so as such,

04:34 Day 3 are beginning to hire more foreign knowledge workers and people with language capabilities,

04:39 such as Japanese and Korean. From the 33.12 million raised from the listing, nearly half

04:45 was allocated for working capital to recruit an additional 380 customer experience executives,

04:51 as well as 3.02 million to recruit industry experts. Meanwhile, the group said it has

04:56 secured four clients in the last 12 months from the e-commerce, retail, banking and financial

05:01 services, as well as an online travel agency, which contributed to its revenue for the first half of 2023.

05:08 IGB Commercial REIT, the country's largest standalone office street by net lethal area,

05:18 reported a marginal 3% increase in its net property income for its second quarter

05:23 to $31.1 million as it recorded higher revenue on higher occupancy rate. The occupancy rate of

05:29 the REIT's portfolio of 10 assets, which include the Gardens North and South Towers, Manara IGB,

05:35 G Tower and Manara Tan and Tan, rose to 78.9% from 71.4% in the corresponding quarter in 2022.

05:44 The group declared a lower distribution per unit of $1.74 for the January 1 to January 30 period,

05:50 down from the $1.93 it paid in the previous year's corresponding period.

05:54 For the first six months of FY2023, the REIT reported a net property income of $63.5 million,

06:01 up 5% from the $60.51 million it reported in the same period a year ago, as revenue grew to $105.32

06:09 million from the $95.51 million it posted the year before. Going forward, rental reversions

06:15 are anticipated to remain relatively flat, and rental aid for entitled tenants is expected to

06:20 be low. It also expects the recent announcement of reduced electricity surcharge rate for non-domestic

06:26 users with medium and high voltage, which kicked in on July 1, to have a positive impact on its

06:32 business. According to the REIT, this will help to eliminate significant overhead costs for all

06:36 buildings, while the savings generated from the reduction can be allocated to other areas

06:41 or invested in energy-efficient solutions.

06:43 PharmaNiaga's unit, PharmaNiaga Life Science, has signed a memorandum of understanding with

06:53 CSPC Pharmaceutical Group subsidiary CSPC-Uyi Pharmaceutical Co. to enhance the production of

07:00 CSPC's biopharmaceutical portfolio. In a statement, PharmaNiaga said that the partnership agreement

07:06 is premised on the research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of innovative

07:11 pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products, as well as focusing on CSPC's advanced mRNA vaccines,

07:18 leading towards the commercialization of these products in Malaysia and other relevant territories.

07:23 PharmaNiaga's R&D team views CSPC's mRNA technology platform as having significant potential,

07:30 especially in the development of vaccines for diseases like flu, respiratory syncytial virus,

07:36 zoster, HPV and dengue. Midas CEO, Datuk Wira Arham Abdul Rahman said that this collaboration

07:42 holds the promise of propelling Malaysia towards becoming a vaccine-producing country

07:47 within the ASEAN region. PharmaNiaga said that its collaborative interests with CSPC go beyond

07:52 vaccines, venturing into various pharmaceutical products within the realm of anti-infective,

07:57 cardiovascular, neurology, gastroenterology, immunology and pulmonary treatments.

08:03 [Music]

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