KUALA LUMPUR (May 24): Former KNM Group Bhd (KL:KNM) executive director Flavio Porro has been appointed as an executive director on AHB Holdings Bhd’s (KL:AHB) board.
The 54-year-old lawyer joins the office furniture trading firm’s board effective Thursday, according to its bourse filing.
“Porro boasts over 25 years of experience as a corporate and business lawyer, specialising in oil and gas, renewables, and power production sectors,” AHB said.
“Throughout his career, he has provided counsel to major corporations such as ENI Group, Saipem, Bouygues Offshore, Snam, ERG, and KNM Group,” the company added.
AHB has been in the red for 16 consecutive quarterly periods. It first began its streak in the red in the second quarter ended March 31, 2020 (2QFY2020).
For the three-month period ended Dec 31, 2023, the company posted a net loss of RM4.01 million on a revenue of RM703,000. There are no comparative figures as it changed its financial year-end from Sept 30 to March 31 in September last year.
On Porro, he was notably part of a group of individuals who last year proposed to replace KNM’s board of directors including the group’s largest shareholder and chairman Tunku Datuk Yaacob Khyra.
Tunku Yaacob, who controls a 14.48% stake in the oil and gas engineering group via Melewar Industrial Group Bhd, emerged victorious in the shareholder tussle after the dissenting shareholders of KNM led by German businessman Andreas Heeschen failed to garner sufficient support in the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Oct 16 last year.
Days prior to the EGM, KNM and its indirect wholly-owned units Deutsche KNM GMBH and Borsig GMBH sued Porro as well as another of the company’s former executive directors, Terence Tan Koon Ping, for not acting in the company’s best interest when KNM called off the disposal of Borsig to Vorsprung Industries GMBH for €220.8 million (RM1.107 billion) in December 2022.
Shares in AHB ended one sen or 5.56% lower at 17 sen, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM126.5 million. KNM shares closed 2.5 sen or 33.33% higher at 10 sen, valuing the group at RM379.3 million.