PETALING JAYA: KNM Group Bhd
chairman Tunku Datuk Yaacob Khyra has won the majority support of shareholders to continue his leadership with the company and deliver on his turnaround strategy.
Following the company’s EGM yesterday, Tunku Yaacob thanked the group’s shareholders for their confidence, trust and continued support.
“The board is heartened by the support from shareholders and wishes to inform them that the board remains fully committed in their efforts to ensure their targets of debt settlement within nine months through a partial initial public offering of Borsig, which in turn will ensure a profitable and sustainable future for KNM, its shareholders and all stakeholders.”
Tunku Yaacob has a 9.5% indirect stake in Practice Note 17-status KNM via Melewar Industrial Group Bhd.
On Sept 5, KNM received a written request from a group of shareholders holding a combined 10.68% equity interest in the company to convene an EGM seeking the removal of its entire board of directors.
The shareholders – German entrepreneur Andreas Heeschen and eight others – sought to remove Tunku Yaacob, Tan Sri Dr Zulhasnan Rafique, Ravindrasingham Balasingham, Yee Hong Ho, Steve Ho Soo Woon, Thulasy Suppiah, Datuk Uwe Ahrens, James Beltran and Datuk Naresh Mohan.
They also sought to appoint Johor princess Tunku Kamariah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah Sultan Iskandar and five others – Heeschen, Edwin Silvester Das, Datuk Zaidi Mat Isa@Hashim, William H. Van Vliet III, Flavio Porro, as well as Datuk Abd Ghani Yusof – to the board.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement yesterday, Tunku Kamariah said an investigation would be conducted over possible irregularities in the vote count of yesterday’s EGM.
“It became clear during the virtual voting (of the EGM) that one resolution was not voted on with Heeschen’s 323 million shares, resulting in a vote count of 634.5 million.
“The other resolutions then included Heeschen’s shares and were surprisingly found to be precisely 323 million in difference. The importance of that point is that it proves that the physical proxy form as given by Heeschen prior to the EGM was not recognised.”
Tunku Kamariah said this has led to the questioning on whether other physical proxy forms were admitted and included into the total vote count.
“The total number of shares voted appears to have been as marginal as a 2% difference of the issued share capital. The two sides are surprisingly close in shareholdings.
“KNM denied our request for an independent lawyer to observe the vote count at the EGM. Maybe they have something to hide.”
In the same statement, Heeschen said “we are assessing the situation and will discuss it with our advisors”.
“Our options range from conditional offers to dialogues with creditors and other stakeholders,” he said.
