IN 2011, at age 30, Datuk Ricky Wong Shee Kai was one of the country’s youngest CEOs of a public listed company. He was also one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the country to hold a Datuk title.

Wong was the CEO of Asia Media Group Bhd — a company he founded to offer infotainment and advertising through the use of digital electronic displays installed in various public modes of transport such as buses. The firm had been growing rapidly since its founding in 2007, with its net profit increasing 13-fold to hit RM10.28 million by 2010.

With a background in accounting and finance, Wong received several accolades in his personal capacity, including the Most Promising Entrepreneur at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards in 2010.

Still, up until then, Wong and his company were relatively unknown to the market. This changed after it went public on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia in January 2011. Two years later, Asia Media was transferred to the Main Market.

Asia Media’s 2010 annual report shows that Wong is the son of Teh Sew Wan, who was a non-executive director of Asia Media until May 2011. The duo held a 45.61% stake in Asia Media through their private investment vehicle Wong SK Holdings Sdn Bhd as at May 5, 2011.

Recently, Wong made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Last week, he got into the news after the Securities Commission Malaysia sought the public and Interpol’s help to locate him. He is wanted by the SC in connection with securities and money laundering offences. Earlier, he had failed to appear at the SC for questioning, leading to a warrant being issued on Dec 27 last year for his arrest.

Good old days

Asia Media enjoyed a strong first year as a public company. Net profit for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2011 (FY2011), rose 46% year on year to RM15.01 million as revenue more than doubled to RM36.55 million.

The group also had a healthy balance sheet, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03 times as at Dec 31, 2011. Its cash balance amounted to RM13.28 million while borrowings totalled RM1.73 million.

It was in a good position, having won the concessions to operate transit-TV network systems on RapidKL and Causeway Link buses as well as Plusliner, Nice and Nice++ Express buses in Peninsular Malaysia. To its credit, it had 3,175 LCD TV screens installed on 1,500 buses by end-March 2011.

Still, the group’s ability to clinch lucrative concessions was always a talking point. Many pointed to its political connections, particularly with Datuk Seri Syed Ali Abbas Al-Habshee serving as its non-executive chairman. Syed Ali was then an Umno politician and also sat on the board of companies such as Perbadanan Nasional Bhd, CI Holdings Bhd, Tanjung Offshore Bhd (now known as T7 Global Bhd), Uzma Bhd and REDtone International Bhd.

But in FY2012, Asia Media saw its net profit slide 22% y-o-y to RM11.72 million, which it blamed on higher operating cost. Net profit contracted further by more than half to RM5.16 million in FY2013, and it sank into the red in FY2014 with a net loss of RM20.41 million due to higher depreciation charged and content cost. It took three years for the group to reverse its losses.

Over the years, Asia Media has had its fair share of unusual market activity queries by Bursa Securities. On June 20, 2016, it was queried after its share price jumped 75% in less than a week and on Dec 6, 2016, after its share price plunged 35%. However, both times, it said it was unaware of the reasons for the sharp price movement.

The stock has been trading in a 52-week range of 3 sen to 14 sen, closing at 4.5 sen last Thursday — a far cry from its initial public offering price of 23 sen. Its market capitalisation stood at a mere RM10.78 million.

Signs of trouble

In September 2014, a former chief financial officer of its subsidiary Asia Media Sdn Bhd (AMSB) sued the group over irregularities in the statutory declarations in its financial statements for FY2012 and FY2013. Ang Lay Chieng said her signatures in the financial statements were forged.

This was vehemently denied by Asia Media, which sought to file a defamation suit against Ang. In February 2016, Ang withdrew her suit against the group but no reason was given. However, this was a harbinger of more lawsuits to come.

In March 2015, Asia Media was slapped with a RM1.82 million lawsuit by Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd for non-payment of dues under a licence agreement. To date, a total of RM1.25 million is still due.

Then, in December 2017, its unit AMSB was sued by Plisch Broadcast Asia Pacific Pte Ltd for outstanding payment of €511,999 plus interest for transmitters sold. Subsequently, Plisch filed an appeal in September 2019 against the ruling that the amount due be reduced to €26,017. This amount also remains outstanding.

It is learnt that Plisch had on March 10, 2020, filed a petition to wind up AMSB for the amount owed. The petition was due to be heard on April 21 but this did not take place as the date fell within the Movement Control Order period.

Syed Ali resigned from the chairman’s post in April 2017, leaving Wong and Yeong Siew Lee, along with two new members — Paul Jong Jun Hian and Ong Chooi Lee — on the board. That year, the group reported a net profit of RM2.22 million on revenue of RM15.38 million. Its debt-to-equity ratio was near zero, with a cash balance of RM2.1 million.

However, Asia Media’s positive performance did not last long. The group slipped back into the red the following year, posting a net loss of RM26.6 million on lower revenue of RM13.4 million. Its current liabilities exceeded its current assets by RM1.55 million as at Dec 31, 2018. It also recorded a deficit in shareholders’ fund of RM1.55 million, raising doubts about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern.

Troubles multiplied for Asia Media in 2019. In April that year, it announced that the issuance of its annual report for FY2018 would be delayed, citing a lack of manpower due to unexpected high staff turnover. As a result, trading in Asia Media’s shares was suspended on May 9, 2019. It was not until Oct 29, 2019, that trading resumed.

With the matter still pending, Asia Media in July 2019 announced that it had slipped into Practice Note 17 (PN17) status after losing a major contract with bus operators in the Klang Valley and Johor.

By then, however, the focus had turned to six shareholders who owned a combined 10.33% stake in the company. In June 2019, they requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting to remove five of the seven directors on Asia Media’s board and to replace them with four candidates. In the EGM, all five directors — Wong, Chooi Lee, Jong, Chow Zee Neng and Ken Ong Kar Kian — were voted out by shareholders.

Asia Media’s board now comprises Datuk Prof Raja Munir Shah Raja Mustapha as its non-executive chairman, Liew Chee Keong as executive director and four non-executive directors, namely Tony Koh Kok Beng, Yap Ping Tiong, Datuk Kang Hua Keong and Datuk Chiw Tiang Chai. However, the transition did not turn out to be smooth.

After the EGM, Liew and Yap visited the office of Asia Media in Puchong, Selangor, to determine the status of its recently lost contract as well as to obtain relevant documents for the outstanding 2018 annual report but the duo was denied access.

At the same time, the ousted directors of Asia Media were not leaving without a fight. In August 2019, Jong lodged a police report against Asia Media, alleging that his signature was forged on a recent directors’ circular resolution to approve the release of the first announcement with regard to it being categorised as a PN17 company.

This was followed by a letter sent to Asia Media from Kar Kian, alleging that the group had made a false and misleading announcement in August 2019. In the letter, Kar Kian stated that Asia Media was never the tenant of the office premises that Liew and Yap had tried to access on July 26 as the tenancy of the premises was only signed with its unit AMSB. He also stated that the tenancy had expired on June 30, 2019.

In response, Asia Media’s new board announced that despite the termination letter being dated July 1, 2019, it was only received a month later.

In August 2019, a court order was finally obtained to gain access to the premises of Asia Media. However, all the data and management accounts required to complete its outstanding financial statements were gone by then. In addition, the company’s external auditors Messrs UHY had resigned on Aug 7, 2019.

On Oct 25, 2019, Asia Media’s 2018 annual report was finally filed with Bursa. However, Asia Media’s new external auditors STYL Associates PLT expressed a disclaimer of opinion in the audited financial statements for FY2018.

What’s next?

To start afresh, the current board of Asia Media has changed the group’s financial year end to Sept 30 from Dec 31. Net loss for the first quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 (1QFY2020), narrowed to RM265,000 from RM26.55 million a year ago, despite revenue shrinking 97% y-o-y to RM75,000.

Still, whether Asia Media will regain its former glory remains to be seen. In January, the group said it is still in the midst of formulating a plan to regularise its financial conditions together with fundraising plans. It has until Oct 24 to submit its regularisation plan to the relevant authorities for approval, but the clock is ticking.