Police raid KNM’s CoSec and registrar offices, seize biz documents

POLICE from the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) had on Tuesday (Dec 12) conducted simultaneous raids at the company secretary office and the share registrar office of cash-strapped oil & gas (O&G) engineering outfit KNM Group Bhd.

It is learnt that the police have “confiscated documents pertaining to the business activities of KNM” during both raids.

As KNM has yet to notify Bursa Malaysia on the matter, the sources hinted that there could be two possibilities for the simultaneous raids:

• A whistleblower report dated June 26 this year that cast a shadow over two of Malaysia’s prominent companies, MAA Group Bhd and KNM. The leaked documents are said to have exposed corporate misdeeds by Tunku Datuk Yaacob Khyra, a significant figure in both companies.
• KNM’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held on Oct 16 where a fully virtual polling exercise was conducted in the quest to remove nine existing directors of the company.

Recall that following the EGM’s outcome, the aspirant directors led by Johor Princess Tunku Kamariah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah Sultan Iskandar and German tycoon Andreas Heeschen who holds an 8.25% stake in KNM, failed in their attempt to oust all nine board members, including chairman Tunku Yaacob.

They only managed to remove two directors, namely Tan Sri Zulhasnan Rafique and Steve Ho Soo Woon.

In the aftermath of its EGM, the financial woes at KNM are back in focus with the shareholder feud at the Practice Note 17 (PN17) status firm having dissipated.

For its financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2023 or a 15-month period following a change in its financial year-end, the group continued to be in the red by posting a net loss of RM241.55 mil from a revenue of RM1.38 bil.

While KNM had on Nov 3 said it would appeal against a Kuala Lumpur High Court decision to dismiss its application to extend the restraining order (RO) against its scheme creditors, some disgruntled shareholders were reported to have wanted CEO Ravindrasingham Balasingham to take the rap for such development.

The shareholders claimed they felt cheated that “the SOA (scheme of arrangement) in real terms and effect remains a pie in the sky to-date”.

At market close yesterday, KNM was unchanged at 9.5 sen with 35.69 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM384 mil.