MRCB gets nod for NGD buy

By Sharen Kaur
sharen@mediaprima.com.my
Published in NST on June 21, 2013

RM814m DEAL: Gapurna will have a combined 16.8pc stake in enlarged entity and EPF 38.4pc

Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) shareholders have given their nod to the company’s plans to buy assets worth RM814 million from Nusa Gapurna Development Bhd (NGD).

This paves the way for Gapurna group owner Datuk Mohamad Salim Fateh to helm MRCB.

Business Times understands that Salim, Gapurna Sdn Bhd’s (GSB) founder, will be appointed as MRCB group managing director as early as in the fourth quarter of this year.

His 31-year-old son, Mohd Imran Mohamad Salim, is currently MRCB group chief operating officer.

After the proposed acquisitions, GSB will have direct and indirect interests of 16.8 per cent of the enlarged MRCB while the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) stake will be diluted to 38.4 per cent from 42.2 per cent.
MRCB is developing the RM11 billion KL Sentral transport hub in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. NGD is a 60:40 joint venture company between GSB and the EPF.
At the MRCB extraordinary general meeting (EGM) yesterday, more than 92 per cent of the 1,500 shareholders who attended passed all of the resolutions, including buying a 100 per cent stake in PJ Sentral Development Sdn Bhd (PJSD) for RM284.3 million.
PJSD, which is developing the multi-billion ringgit PJ Sentral project in Petaling Jaya’s Section 52 in Selangor, is a 70:30 joint venture between NGD and the Selangor Economic Development Corp (PKNS).
PKNS, however, is not selling its share in the project. Instead, it is offering to buy NGD’s 70 per cent stake in PJ Sentral but the company rejected it PKNS filed a suit on Wednesday to block the sale of PJ Sentral to MRCB on the grounds that NGD had breached a shareholders’ agreement on the project between the two companies and that MRCB had “intentionally or recklessly procured a breach of the shareholders’ agreement”.
MRCB chairman Tan Sri Azlan Zainol said after the EGM he hopes that the deal will work out and the matter resolved amicably.
“This is a shareholders’ dispute and we (MRCB) are involved in the suit as a purchaser and PKNS is acting in good faith. If we can settle it out of court, we certainly will do so,” he said.
According to transaction adviser Wong Muh Rong from Astramina Advisory, the deal is set to be completed by the fourth quarter of this year.
“As far as NGD is concerned, they’re just monetising their investments in PJ Sentral and converting that into MRCB shares,” she said.
MRCB was down two sen, or 1.29 per cent, to close at RM1.53 yesterday.