Minority Shareholders Watch Group chief executive officer Devanesan Evanson (pic) said the issuance of the guidance note is timely, considering that there has been a proliferation of activity on the Internet which may cross the line between investment guidance (an unlicensed activity) and the regulated activity of investment advice.
PETALING JAYA: A quick check on social media platforms and blogs would reveal that unlicensed “investment gurus” have mushroomed, especially after the stock market boomed earlier this year.
By offering stock ideas and “buy” calls, these unlicensed investment gurus are taking advantage of the new and inexperienced retail investors who have flooded the market in search of higher profits as fixed deposit returns decline due to lower interest rates.
LAST Friday, market talk had it that the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) had secured the requisite funding to buy the stakes held by Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan), or KWAP, and Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd (UJSB) in FGV Holdings Bhd.
The funding included the amount needed to buy up all the shares not under FELDA and parties acting in concert with it. Details of the funding, however, were unavailable but one source familiar with the matter said that FELDA obtained the loan as it had assets in the form of land.
“I would think it’s a club deal (a consortium of banks), no single financial institution would take up such a loan … or it (the privatisation) could be government funded,” one source says.
THE Federal Land Development Authority’s (FELDA) offer of RM1.30 per share to Kumpulan Wang Amanah Diperbadankan (KWAP) and Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd (UJSB) for their stakes in FGV Holdings Bhd has triggered a mandatory takeover offer and raised many questions.
To recap, last week, FELDA which had a 33.66% stake in FGV as at March 20, 2020 sought to acquire UJSB’s 7.78% for RM368.8 million and KWAP’s 6.1% for RM289.2 million. In a nutshell, FELDA is increasing its shareholding by 13.88%, which will cost it RM658 million. (Note that there has not been any announcement on changes in FELDA’s interest in FGV since March.)
BOUSTEAD Holdings Bhd’s new group managing director Datuk Seri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly, who stepped into his new role last Tuesday (Dec 1), has his work cut out for him, and that is to steer the diversified conglomerate back to profitability by 2023.
Shazalli is the third MD to helm the group in three years after Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin and Datuk Seri Amrin Awaluddin. In a statement issued on Nov 27, Boustead hailed Shazalli as a “turnaround specialist”. Still, most of Shazalli’s career has been in telecommunications, more recently as the MD and CEO of Telekom Malaysia Bhd.
He inherits an organisation that has significant legacy issues, which its chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin had previously identified as investments made in the past that do not have the right focus in making them profitable, mismatch of funding between long-term investment and short-term debts, and a convoluted organisational structure where there are cross-holdings in Boustead subsidiaries