Bursa monitors all disclosures by listed companies

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PETALING JAYA: Bursa Malaysia has reiterated that it monitors closely all disclosures made by listed companies, including responses to unusual market queries (UMAs).

“In the event the response by the listed issuer is subsequently found to be factually incorrect or misleading, then appropriate enforcement action will be taken against the listed issuer concerned and/or its directors,” the stock exchange regulator said in an e-mail to StarBizWeek.

“We place a strong emphasis on investor protection,” it added.

Bursa Malaysia said this in response to questions posed by StarBizWeek with regards to this week’s events leading to the announcement of a possible takeover of ACE Market-listed Ingenuity Solutions Bhd.

On Thursday, Ninetology Marketing Sdn Bhd, a relatively unknown technology firm with a paid-up capital of RM2, announced at a press conference that it had “ready funds” to take over Ingenuity, also a tech firm which made a net profit of RM3.2mil in its latest quarter.

Ninetology had, on Monday, made known this intention to the press by inviting reporters to cover the Thursday press conference, prompting several industry observers to question the need for the early announcement of the intention.

Specifically, on Thursday, Ninetology said it was offering to buy out the major shareholders, who collectively own 40% of Ingenuity, at a price of 55 sen per Ingenuity share.

Ninetology said if the offer was accepted, it would subsequently conduct a general offer for the rest of the shares of the latter. This buyout would cost it around RM360mil.

The offer price for Ingenuity works out to a whopping 16 times Ingenuity’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation.

Ninetology reportedly has a 39% stake in NineZTE Sdn Bhd, a mobile device vendor, while Ingenuity’s wholly-owned Ingens Sdn Bhd owns a majority 51% of NineZTE.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the entire proposed deal pans out in the end but industry observers have remarked that the market should not be surprised if it amounts to naught.

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