Maika Holdings looking for its shareholders to help them cash out

 

Investment company Maika Holdings Bhd is conducting a voluntary verification exercise for its outstanding shareholders from Sept 28 to Oct 15.

It is trying to get in touch with the remaining three percent of shareholders who failed to surrender their shares when G Team Resources acquired 97 percent of Maika.

A source familiar with the case told Malaysiakini that only 60 individuals had stepped up for the verification exercise so far.

This is despite the nature of the exercise, the source said, which was described as an "open offer" to help Maika shareholders redeem their shares.

Following the verification process, the money from the takeover by G Team Resources will be parked under the Amanah Rakyat fund.

Based on a civil suit filed in 2019, it is believed that the investment company has 66,400 shareholders.

Malaysiakini understands Maika paused its liquidation process last year, due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, but began resuming the process last month.

In order to participate in the verification exercise, Maika Holdings shareholders must present their original shareholder certificate.

In the early 1980s, Maika Holdings was formed by MIC as an investment company that raised RM106 million from roughly 55,000 shareholders - mostly from the lower-income group.

However, the company failed to deliver returns to investors. As a result, those who took loans or sold their assets to invest were left in the lurch for many years.

It was not until 2010 that tycoon G Gnanalingam stepped in to acquire the shares from investors at close to par value through G Team Resources.

In 2019, three shareholders of the MIC-owned Maika Holdings Bhd filed a civil suit alleging that RM144 million, which was supposed to be distributed to thousands of shareholders, had gone missing.

G Team Resources has declined to respond to Malaysiakini's request for comment. - Mkini