Reference is made to the Company’s announcement dated 28 August 2020 in relation to its status of compliance with the required public shareholding spread.

The Company did not meet the requirement as set out in paragraph 8.02(1) of the Main Market Listing Requirements of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (“Listing Requirements”) which states that a listed issuer must ensure that at least 25% of its total listed shares (excluding treasury shares) are in the hands of public shareholders.

As a result, trading in its shares had been suspended by Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad.

As announced previously, the Company has been in active discussions with its majority shareholder, Hong Leong Financial Group Berhad (“HLFG”), on possible options to comply with the public shareholding spread requirement.

In this regard, the Company wishes to announce that HLFG has completed a private placement of 27,000,000 existing ordinary shares in HLCB today to increase the public shareholding spread of HLCB. Following the completion of the said private placement, the public shareholding spread of the Company as at today is 29.60% and the Company has met the requirements as set out in Paragraph 8.02(1) of the Listing Requirements.

An application will be submitted to Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad for the upliftment of suspension in the trading of the ordinary shares in HLCB in due course.

This announcement is dated 9 November 2020.