By Jose Barrock
Mohd Nazifuddin Najib
Mohd Nazifuddin Najib, son of premier Najib Abdul Razak, says that he is not going to surface as a shareholder in Eastland Equities, throwing cold water on market speculation yesterday.
“No it’s not true (that he will buy into Eastland Equity), I’m wondering why people are running stories on me.
“I was approached (to buy into Eastland) but I hadn’t decided yet… now definitely I won’t (buy into Eastland)… Readers should be cautious with people using my name, as they are trying to benefit from share price movements. The public has to be wary of name dropping,” he said in a brief phone conversation with KiniBiz.
Bernama reported yesterday, quoting sources, that Nazifuddin was entering into the fray to thwart a group led by businessmen Teh Soon Seng, over control of Eastland Equity.
News of Nazifuddin buying into Eastland (which was formerly known as Furqan Business Organisation), nudged the counter up to its highest in more than five years, closing at RM1.18. Over the past couple of weeks, Eastland’s stock had gained more than 100%, with increased trading volume.
Tawau born Teh was last known to be residing in Hong Kong, after falling foul of the law in Malaysia. In 1997 Teh was alleged to have misappropriated some RM55 million from his flagship Aokam Perdana, and was sought for questioning by the authorities.
Strengthening the rumour was an announcement by Eastland yesterday that it was looking to place out 10% of its share base to strategic investors, and had appointed M&A Securities for the placement.
Eastland’s appeal it seems was in its main asset, Renaissance Hotel, the only five star hotel in Kota Bahru, Kelantan and a RM200 million development project in Pasir Mas, Kelantan as well.
For its financial year ended December 2012, Eastland posted meagre profits of RM1.3 million from RM36.1 million in revenue, and was in the red for the fourth quarter of the year.
The current financial year has not started out too well either. For its three months ended March, Eastland registered a net profit of RM858,000 on RM8.8 million in sales.
Prior to his purported interest in Eastland, the premier’s son had been rumoured to be eyeing stakes in other companies as well. One that was more clear-cut was Supercomnet Technologies, where the 30-year-old Nazifuddin was offered an 18% stake, in the first quarter of last year, but declined to buy into the company.
Nazifuddin was, at one time, partners with Raymond Chan Boon Siew, and ventured into a few companies that saw meteoric rises in their share prices. Among them were Naim Indah Corp, Harvest Court Industries hd, Metronic Global and Ariantec Global.
Ironically yesterday, other than Eastland, Naim Indah Corp and Harvest Court Industries were also among the most actively traded on Bursa Malaysia.
At the midday break Eastland was up four sen to RM1.22, with more than nine million shares changing hands.
Naim Indah and Harvest Court were also among the most active stocks on the Bursa Malaysia today, with Naim Indah unchanged at 15.5 sen, with about 15.8 million shares traded and Harvest Court inching up half a sen to 39.5 sen buoyed by 11.6 million shares exchanging hands.
Following is a press statement issued by Mohd Nazifuddin Mohd Najib
RE: The fabrication of information in the Bernama article entitled “Nazifuddin Najib in bid to control Eastland”
In relation to an article entitled “Nazifuddin Najib in bid to control Eastland” which was published by Bernama on July 9, 2013, I wish to clarify that the statements about me entering the fray to thwart a group led by businessmen Teh Soon Seng are not true and I never entered into any bid to control Eastland.
The public should exercise caution when reading such an article, as it was based on unreliable sources. Information of this nature could be used by other parties for personal gain.
Legal action was taken recently against a print media which published an article based on an irresponsible corporate source. The article has caused damage to my reputation and I have filed a police report to seek further assistance in investigating the matter.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mohd Nazifuddin Bin Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Razak
You must be logged in to post a comment.