KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has publicly reprimanded Scan Associates Bhd and its five directors, who were also fined a total of RM350,000, for failing to make timely public disclosures regarding its Guidance Note 3 (GN3) position.
The securities trading regulator said in a statement that Scan, which is in the business of information communication technology security solutions, triggered the GN3 prescribed criteria based on its fourth quarterly report for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014 announced on Feb 27, 2015.
“However, Scan failed to make an immediate announcement that it was a GN3 company and only made the first announcement pursuant to GN3 on May 19, 2015,” it said.
Bursa Securities issued a directive to Scan dated May 8, 2015, requiring it to announce that it had triggered the GN3 criteria, but Scan made the announcement only three days later.
The ACE Market firm said it had “no means” to make the announcement as “the company secretary had resigned on the same day.” In the same May 11 announcement, the company stated it disagreed with the directive and therefore was taking legal action against Bursa Securities.
Bursa Securities later classified Scan as a GN3 company (on May 18, 2015) after the High Court dismissed the legal suit.
“Bursa Malaysia Securities views the contraventions seriously as timely disclosure of material information is one of the fundamental obligations of listed companies to preserve and sustain market integrity and investor confidence,” it said.
“In this instant, the information pertaining to classification/ triggering of GN3 is crucial to the shareholders and investors towards facilitating informed investment decisions as it relates to the company’s financial condition and the consequences of being classified as a financially distressed company pursuant to GN3 including possible suspension and de-listing,”
Datuk Dr Norbik Bashah Idris, who was then the chief executive officer, and executive director Mak Siew Wei were fined RM150,000 each.
Audit committee chairman Major (Rtd) Ismail Ahmad and audit committee member Datuk Nik Ismail Nik Yusoff were fined RM20,000 each, while Datuk Nasri Nasrun, who resigned as director and audit committee chairman on March 13, 2015, was fined RM10,000.
Bursa Securities said apart from Nasri, all the directors were aware of its directive, yet refused to comply with or ensure compliance of the same.
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