KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Anthony See (pic), a former estranged director of Kian Joo Can Factory Bhd (KJCF), has lost his appeals in the High Court against Kian Joo, Can-One Bhd and a few others, relating to the takeover of Kian Joo assets by Aspire Insight Sdn Bhd.

Aspire Insight is the vehicle of Kian Joo’s chief operating officer (COO) Chee Khay Leong and the Employees Provident Fund.

In their respective filings with Bursa Malaysia, Kian Joo and Can-One both said the Court of Appeal has dismissed the appellant’s (See) appeal yesterday against the company and awarded costs of RM20,000 each to the company.

On Dec 1 last year, See filed an appeal after his suits against Kian Joo, Can-One and a few others — including Kian Joo’s group managing director Yeoh Jin Hoe, Chee and Aspire Insight — had been struck out by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Nov 14 last year.

See in May 2014 commenced legal actions against Can-One, Kian Joo, Yeoh, Chee and Aspire Insight to prevent Can-One from voting on the sale of Kian Joo’s assets and liabilities to Aspire Insight for RM1.47 billion.

Can-One controls 32.9% of Kian Joo and is its biggest shareholder. Aspire Insight, meanwhile, is the vehicle of EPF and Chee, who was also formerly Can-One’s COO.

With See’s appeal being dismissed, Kian Joo may proceed to call for a long-delayed extraordinary general meeting to deliberate on the sale of assets to Aspire Insight, said market observers.

Kian Joo (fundamental: 2; valuation: 1.5) ended up eight sen or 2.9% to RM2.87 yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.27 billion. Can-One (fundamental: 1.1; valuation: 1.8) meanwhile, dropped two sen to RM2.54, with a market capitalisation of RM390.14 million. — by Jeffrey Tan

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 2, 2015.