KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 14): Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has publicly reprimanded Jerasia Capital Bhd and eight of its directors for breaches of the Main Market listing requirements (Main LR).

In addition, the eight directors were imposed total fines of RM600,000.

In a statement, Bursa Securities said Jerasia was publicly reprimanded for defaults in payments by Jerasia’s wholly-owned subsidiaries Jerasia Fashion Sdn Bhd (JFSB), Jerasia Apparel Sdn Bhd (JASB) and Canteran Apparel Sdn Bhd (CASB).

The group was also publicly reprimanded for failing to make an immediate announcement of the lawsuit filed by the lenders against its subsidiaries and summary judgment obtained by Ambank (M) Bhd, Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd, and also failing to make an immediate announcement of the winding-up petition filed by Ambank against JFSB in July 2021.

The reprimand on Jerasia was also because the group had misstated the dates of defaults in payments to Ambank, Alliance Bank, RHB Bank and Bank of China (Malaysia) Bhd (BOC).

As such, Bursa Securities said the eight directors had breached  paragraph 16.13(b) of the Main LR for permitting Jerasia to commit the breaches.

The directors are former independent non-executive chairman Datuk Phang Ah Tong, former executive deputy chairman Datuk Yap Fung Kong, group managing director Pronob Kumar Sen Gupta, former executive director Debbie Yap May Se, non-independent non-executive director Datuk Dr Yong Yuan Tan, independent non-executive director Andrew Hong Tat Beng, independent non-executive director Arnold Kwan Poon Keong and independent non-executive director Rajaretnam Soloman Daniel.

In a separate bourse filing, Jerasia said CASB had received a notice from the solicitors acting for RHB demanding for the payment of the outstanding sum of RM28.81 million owed by the subsidiary.

“In the event that CASB failed to pay RHB at the expiration of 21 days from the date of the notice received, CASB will be deemed pursuant to Section 466(1) of the Companies Act 2016 and the winding up proceedings will be commenced against CASB,” the group said.  

Jerasia’s previous filings showed that JFSB and JASB too had been served with winding-up petitions by the solicitors acting for Ambank, over owed sums of RM28.95 million and RM23.99 million respectively.

Jerasia had triggered the Practice Note 17 criteria on Jan 31, 2022 as its shareholders’ equity on a consolidated basis was 25% or less than its share capital.

Its share price closed 0.5 sen or 10% lower at 4.5 sen on Tuesday, giving the group a market capitalisation of just RM4 million.