This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 2, 2026 - March 8, 2026

SECURITIES regulators in Malaysia have been punctilious about holding public-listed companies (PLCs) and their directors accountable for failures in making timely disclosures with regard to material corporate developments, penalising and reprimanding where the circumstances so warrant.

Yet,  Minority Shareholders Watch Group (MSWG) CEO Ismet Yusoff thinks there is still room for regulators to raise the integrity of public disclosures by being stricter with PLCs that take a cavalier attitude when it comes to their announcements to the stock exchange.

“I think we need to be more stringent in terms of announcements because, from a shareholder’s perspective, we rely on what the company announces and information that is publicly available. Some of these errata run up to 30 days from the date of the [initial] announcement. Imagine that for 30 days a shareholder could be acting on wrong information,” Ismet tells The Edge.

From where he stands, even someone who has made an “honest” mistake should not be let off with a light slap on the wrist when it comes to timely and material financial information.

“Should honest mistakes be excused? I can live [with it] if your name is missing the letter ‘M’ (misspelt) for example, but not for financial, material matters [that require immediate disclosures],” he says, relating how MSWG came across one company in 2024 that made an effort to improve after mistakes were pointed out at the AGM.

“It was quite a blunder, the errata. There were losses, but in the management discussion analysis, they said ‘Nil’ [in 2024]. This year, I attended the same AGM (annual general meeting) and the first thing the chairman highlighted was that he had personally vetted the entire annual report to make sure they did not do anything wrong. So, calling them out actually works. That is why public reprimand matters, because it is more about making them realise that somebody is actually paying attention.”

According to Ismet, as many as 23 PLCs issued errata in May 2025 alone, which raises concerns on the quality of disclosures and internal review processes. As some of these lapses and errors involve significant financial discrepancies and missing environment, social and governance (ESG) data points, there is need for stricter action to uphold reporting integrity and ensure timely corrections.

Regulators already have powers to keep PLCs vigilant with provisions under continued listing obligations.

“Chapter 9 of the Listing Rules says when you make an announcement, you must make sure that it is true and accurate. I think it is time that we really utilise that [to improve the standards of announcements and disclosures],” Ismet elaborates, noting that Bursa Malaysia listing rules also contain provisions on penalties.

Reprimands and fines need to be made public to serve as a deterrent to others, says Ismet, who was appointed MSWG CEO on March 18, 2024.

Prior to that, he was CEO of the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (MICG) since August 2023 and served with the Securities Commission Malaysia, where he contributed to developing strategic corporate governance plans, including the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG), Malaysia’s Corporate Governance Strategic Priorities and Guidelines on Corporate Governance for Capital Market Intermediaries. Ismet took over from Devanesan Evanson, who retired on Dec 19, 2023 after six years at the helm. Evanson’s predecessor was Rita Benoy Bushon, a founding director of MSWG who served eight years at the helm.

MSWG was established more than 25 years ago on Aug 30, 2000 as a non-profit organisation, funded by the Capital Markets Development Fund to protect minority shareholders’ interest and promote corporate governance through shareholder activism.

MSWG, Ismet says, will continue to monitor company disclosures and highlight discrepancies to raise awareness and escalate these for further enforcement action as the organisation does not have regulatory powers.

Even with the transition to fully physical meetings, MSWG continued to make its presence felt at AGMs and extraordinary general meetings (EGMs), raising red flags and posing pertinent questions on behalf of shareholders.

In 2025, MSWG actively monitored more than 451 PLCs, up from 450 in 2023 and 2024. Ismet says he and his team hope to cover more companies this year. 

The number of AGMs and EGMs that MSWG attended annually increased from 368 in 2020 to 536 in 2024, which included one court-convened meeting. In 2025, MSWG attended 533 shareholder meetings, of which 396 were AGMs and 137 were EGMs.

“That is two meetings a day, on average,” Ismet says, noting that more than 500 engagement letters are issued every year to PLCs with 100% of questions answered.

Seasoned PLCs, he says, actively seek out questions from MSWG so that answers can be prepared ahead of the AGM for the benefit of all shareholders attending the meeting.

“Sometimes, we don’t send letters but instead ask the question on the ground. [The minorities] rely on us to kick-start the discussion and questions and they will then follow up with their viewpoints and questions. So, engagement is much more active now.”

While there had been instances where hostile comments were directed towards MSWG at shareholder meetings, Ismet says feedback from both PLCs and minority shareholders have generally been positive.

Shareholders, for example, appreciated instances where MSWG had insisted that the chairman of the board address all shareholder questions before proceeding with voting. AGMs and EGMs are, after all, convened so that shareholders have the opportunity to ask about the company’s operations and plans before voting on resolutions.

“There have been many situations where the chairman would say, ‘Just two questions’, so we wrote an article that was published in the newspapers advising that one should not stop shareholders from asking questions. From there on, things have improved slightly.”

MSWG, Ismet says, also acts on legitimate complaints from shareholders who are concerned about the lack of disclosure, lapses in governance practices and even unfair treatment at AGMs or EGMs. Where clarification is needed, MSWG helps shareholders understand their rights and the issues at hand.

“We do not entertain complaints on door gifts or food but we have had situations where elderly ladies related how they bought shares but did not monitor or did not know a company had been delisted. The total worth of their shares was nearly RM1 million … holding unlisted shares, there is no AGM, no access, so they asked us to talk to the company about buying their shares.

“These are situations where we want to do more. And we want to advocate to shareholders that they must know what they are investing in and continue to monitor their investments. That is very important,” Ismet stresses, relating how some elderly men had approached him at AGMs, lamenting that they lost money after buying shares based on hearsay.

As at Nov 30, 2025, MSWG had received more than 25 complaints from shareholders, all of which have been addressed.

To further raise awareness, MSWG organised its first festival last year dedicated to financial empowerment, governance awareness and shareholder rights. The event featured TED-style talks and offered practical insights into how to read annual reports, spot red flags, ask the right questions at AGMs and better protect their investments. More than 500 shareholders attended and Ismet says plans are underway to organise a second festival.

After more than two decades of MSWG asking questions at AGMs and EGMs, Ismet reckons that “there is a lot more activism happening on the ground”. “Whenever we attend AGMs, we notice more good quality questions are being asked because these come from shareholders who were perhaps accountants and corporate finance people in their previous career. Some younger shareholders pose good questions as well — they even ask about sustainability because for them, they don’t hold that many shares, so it is about value investing.”

In 2026, Ismet says MSWG has “always been fighting where transactions are unfair to shareholders” and, having published its voting guidelines, will be more vocal on resolutions that it disapproves of.

“Some of the standard issues we [already] have in our voting guidelines … so 2026 will be a very interesting year where we are also going to vote on the issue of sustainability. If a company doesn’t set its emission targets or even a net zero target, we will vote against the reappointment of the chairman [because] that means the company is not serious about issues on climate.”

“My [not-so-secret] wish is for MSWG to emulate the late David Webb [who not just raised questions at shareholder meetings but was also a thought leader] and people like Prof Mak,” Ismet says, referring to the prominent British-born Hong Kong activist investor who passed away aged 60 on Jan 13 this year, and corporate governance advocate Prof Mak Yuen Teen. Mak is founding director of Singapore’s Centre for Investor Protection, who also founded the republic’s first corporate governance centre at the National University of Singapore and recently launched GDInstitute (GDI), an independent non-profit body focused on raising board and corporate governance standards in Singapore and Asia.

Having introduced Vision 28 to advance MSWG “as an influential force driven by stronger shareholder activism, digital transformation and ESG advocacy to shape a more transparent, accountable and sustainable corporate landscape in Malaysia and the Asean region”, Ismet says 2026 is going to be an interesting one for MSWG.

“This year is going to be one of change because I will be taking on more of a ‘mischievous’ role in the market,” he hints. “I will comment a bit more on the issues that matter [on social media, not just on MSWG’s official newsletter, The Observer].” 

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