KUALA LUMPUR (April 25): Trading in the shares of Ageson Bhd is set to be suspended on May 10 following the company’s failure to release its annual report for the year ended Dec 31, 2022 in time.

Under Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market listing requirements (MMLR), the annual report must be issued within four months from the close of the financial year, which means the deadline is April 28.

However, Ageson said it is unable to release the report by that date as it needed additional time to identify suitable auditors following the resignation of its previous auditors.

"The company has been actively searching for potential new auditors subsequent to the resignation of predecessor auditors. The company has approached a total of 16 potential auditors, and the majority of the auditors' responses were negative due to resource constraints," the company said in a bourse filing.

The builder-cum-property developer said it expects to release the annual report by October.

The company had on Feb 27 announced the resignation of STYL Associates PLT as its auditors due to resource constraints.

According to the MMLR, if a company fails to issue the annual report within five market days after the expiry of the relevant timeframe, trading in the company's shares will be suspended on the next market day.

Thus, the suspension in the trading of Agesons shares will take effect on May 10, "and will be lifted on the market day following the announcement/issuance of the outstanding annual report 2022 unless otherwise determined by Bursa Securities”, the company said.

If the company fails to issue the report within six months from the expiry of the relevant timeframes, in addition to any enforcement action that Bursa Securities may take, the exchange regulator will commence delisting procedures against the company.

On April 7, Ageson proposed a one-to-one share exchange of its entire issued share capital of up to 565.94 million shares and 254.28 million irredeemable convertible preference shares (ICPS) for new shares and ICPS in Afton Bhd, as part of an internal reorganisation by way of a members scheme of arrangement.

Ageson also proposed to transfer its listing status to Afton.

During the implementation of the proposed share exchange, the board of Afton will be appointed to mirror the board of Ageson, while the current directors of Afton would resign.

Through the internal reorganisation, Afton will become the investment holding vehicle assuming the listing status of Ageson, whilst Ageson will continue to operate the construction, property development and investment holding businesses.

Ageson's share price fell 5.88% or half sen to eight sen on Tuesday (April 25), giving the company a market capitalisation of RM23.55 million.