We call upon the Securities Commission to investigate an act on the extremely unusual price action of the stock, Supercomnet Technologies Bhd which smacked of manipulation and insider trading.
The ACE-listed Supercomnet saw its stock price rallied from 12.5 sen on 20 March 2012 (Tuesday) to 29.5 sen (Friday) and hit a peak of 58.0 sen on the very next trading day on 26 March 2012 (Monday). The spike on Monday represents a 96.6% increase in price over Friday’s closing or a more spectacular 362% increase over Tuesday’s close. The stock closed at 49.5 sen on Monday.
When queried by Bursa Malaysia over the unusual stock activity, Supercomnet had only responded on Monday after trading hours that the major shareholders of the company had the day before signed “an Agreement with Mohd Nazifuddin Bin Mohd Najib to give an option [to Nazifuddin] for the purchase of 45,357,000 ordinary shares of RM0.10 each at RM0.225 per share, representing 18.66% of the issued and paid-up capital of Supercomnet.
The announcement caused the stock to rise further on Tuesday morning to 52.5 sen before a collapse to 36.0 sen at the close. What was perhaps shocking was that after trading hours, Supercomnet announced that “it had on March 27, 2012 received a letter dated March 27, 2012 from En. Mohd Nazifuddin Bin Mohd Najib indicating that he will not be pursuing the option to purchase the 18.66% stake in the Company as stated in the Option Letter”.
This has resulted in a further collapse of the stock yesterday to 22.5 sen.
The rise and fall of Supercomnet share price smacks of massive manipulation and outright negligence on the part of both the existing shareholders and Nazifuddin in ensuring material information is made available to investors on a timely basis. Nazifuddin’s downright bizzare U-turn on the acceptance of the “option to purchase” 18.66% of the company, only to reject it within 48 hours is clearly suspicious must be immediately investigated.
Despite Nazifuddin being the son of our Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, the Securities Commission must show its teeth and act without fear or favour against parties who bring disrepute to our stock markets. The question must be asked as to who made tonnes of money from the entire exercise - by buying up the shares before the option agreement was announced on Monday evening, and subsequently sold the shares before the rejection of the offer was announced on Tuesday evening.
What is more damaging is the fact that this isn’t the first time Nazifuddin is involved in a controversial stock restructuring exercise. Nazifuddin made headlines when he was appointed to the Board of harvest Court Industries Bhd in October last year and resigned within one month. Harvest’s shares were trading below 10 sen for the longest time but it hit 40 sen just before Nazifuddin joined the Board.
Harvest’s shares then soared to a peak RM2.14 by November 14, before it all came crashing down following Nazifuddin’s hurried departure.
Without stern and prompt action from the Securities Commission, we can expect this pattern of Nazifuddin’s proposed entry into and quick exist from a penny stock company being repeat ad nauseam to make some parties a whole load of money at the expense of ordinary investors. The end result will be Bursa Malaysia becoming the butt of jokes among the global investing community.
3 comments:
This is Najibnomics and BN entrepreneurship in action!!!!!! The Securities Commission has cataract and the other related authorities are having hearing problems needing ENT specialist attention...Malaysia Boleh?
Isn't this more a comment on how volatile the Malaysian stock market is, and how much value investors place in who is made a major shareholder or put on the board?
Shouldn't the real issue be that Malaysians should be better educated about the risks of investing in a company when the decision is not based on fundamentals?
The more I hear about najib, his cronies and his family, the least I will think about investing in the companyA,
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