KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 4): Tan Sri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mamed Tahir, executive chairman of Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX), has emerged as a substantial shareholder of FSBM Holdings Bhd after acquiring 30 million shares or a 12.68% stake in the IT services company.

According to FSBM’s filings with Bursa Malaysia, Syed Zainal bought the shares on Aug 2 through subscription agreements with FSBM.

This represents half of the 60 million subscription shares allocated to subscribers on the same day, which forms part of FSBM’s regularisation plan.

According to the earlier announcement in April, the subscription price for the shares is eight sen per share, against the closing price of 27.5 sen on Aug 2.

Syed Zainal is estimated to have forked out RM2.4 million for the block of shares.

The other two subscribers for the shares are FSBM’s executive director Pang Kiew Kun and chief technology officer Low Kang Wei.

Pang’s shareholding in the company increased to 7.94% or 18.79 million shares after the acquisition of 16 million shares in FSBM, while Low purchased 14 million shares or a 5.92% stake. The duo could have forked out RM1.28 million and RM1.12 million respectively.

FSBM lapsed into the Practice Note 17 (PN 17) status in December 2019, after the company's external auditor expressed a disclaimer of opinion on its financial year ended June 30, 2018 (FY2018) audited financial statements. 

In April this year, Bursa Malaysia approved FSBM’s proposed regularisation plan, about 19 months after the company first proposed its plan on Oct 15, 2021.

The group expects to return to profitability and meet the criteria to uplift itself from being classified as a PN17 entity, upon completion of the regularisation plan.

Shares of FSBM closed two sen or 7.27% higher to 29.5 sen on Friday (Aug 4), valuing the group at RM51.5 million.

Read also:
Bursa approves FSBM’s regularisation plan
FSBM slips into PN17 status after auditor expressed disclaimer of opinion on accounts