KUALA LUMPUR: Iris Corp Bhd announced that its group managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Tan Say Jim has disposed of four million shares in the open market for RM520,000 or at 13 sen per share.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the ACE Market-listed Iris said Tan’s stake in the company he co-founded has been reduced to just 60.76 million shares, equivalent to a 2.7% stake.

This development came after the company saw its deputy managing director Datuk Hamdan Hassan and an international sales manager remanded by the anti-corruption agency last Friday.

The disposal, said the loss-making digital identity and trusted identification services provider, was done via a direct transaction in the open market on three occasions: one million shares on Jan 17, one million shares on Jan 18 and two million shares on Jan 19.

Tan has been steadily disposing of his shares since the release of the company’s Annual Report 2016 on July 29, 2016. At the time, the report showed he had a total of 144.36 million shares, equivalent to a 6.45%, in the company.

Tan ceased to be a substantial shareholder of the company late last month after he sold off 56.6 million shares that represented a 2.52% stake in the group, via a direct business transaction for RM6.19 million on Dec 22, leaving him with a 3.91% stake then.

Iris shares closed at 13.5 sen yesterday, with 5.78 million shares exchanged, valuing the company with a market capitalisation of RM303.4 million. In the past one year, its share price has declined 30.77%.