KUALA LUMPUR (May 5): Mohd Amir Masry has ceased to be a shareholder of ACE Market-listed Bahvest Resources Bhd, after offloading his entire 5.37% stake in the gold mining company in off-market trades.

Amir’s stake in Bahvest — totalling 35 million shares — were held via MAB Ventures Sdn Bhd. MAB sold the shares across 11 blocks on Tuesday (May 2) at 30 sen apiece, for a sum of RM10.5 million.

Amir owns a 25% stake in Southsea Gold Sdn Bhd, a company that is demanding RM20.4 million from Bahvest for allegedly trespassing into its gold mining site.

The remaining 75% stake in Southsea Gold is held by Datuk Lo Fui Ming, who is the managing director and CEO of Bahvest.

Lo holds a 16.09% direct stake in the listed company.

In a separate filing, Bahvest said its executive director Lo Teck Yong, who is Fui Ming’s son, had divested 6.7 million shares or a 0.54% stake in Bahvest in the open market on Wednesday (May 3).

Teck Yong is left with 3.83 million shares or a 0.31% stake following the shares divestment, Bahvest said.

On April 26, five Bahvest shareholders — Marlex Trading Ltd, Innosabah Capital Holdings Sdn Bhd, Datuk Freddy Lim Nyuk Sang, Yong Fen Yoo and Chong Tzu Khen — requisitioned for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove three of the company’s six directors, including Fui Ming and Teck Yong, as well as non-executive chairman Datuk Seri Dr Md Kamal Bilal.

Shares of Bahvest plummeted on Wednesday (May 3) — down by as much as 15.5 sen in active trade to a 10-year low of 20.5 sen — on news of the letter of demand from Southsea Gold.

Bahvest, via its wholly-owned unit Wullersdorf Resources Sdn Bhd, has conducted gold mining activities on a piece of land in Tawau, Sabah, since 2017, which it subleased within a larger piece of mining lease land belonging to Southsea Gold for RM60,000 a month.

Amid the EGM requisition to remove its directors, the company plans to demand from the five shareholders the grounds for the removal of the three directors, it said on Wednesday.

Shares of Bahvest closed up two sen or 9.3% at 23.5 sen on Friday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM291.35 million.