Photo by Mohamad Shahril Basri/The Edge

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 19): Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) has said it plans to vote against Hong Leong Bank Bhd's proposal to issue and allot shares, citing insufficient disclosure on the matter as the reason.

"[There's] insufficient disclosure of the purpose and utilisation of proceeds from the proposed share issuance," said PNB, which is a government-owned fund manager.

In a statement, PNB, which is listed among Hong Leong Bank's 30 largest shareholders, however, said PNB plans to vote in favour of the remaining eight proposals at the bank's annual general meeting (AGM) scheduled for Oct 27.

According to Hong Leong Bank's AGM notice, which was filed with Bursa Malaysia on Sept 27, the remaining eight proposals for the AGM include the re-elections of the group's directors and reappointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers PLT as the bank's auditor.

Hong Leong Bank's latest annual report showed that PNB and related entities — Amanah Saham Bumiputera, Amanah Saham Bumiputera 2 and Amanah Saham Malaysia — collectively owned a 2.33% stake in the bank as at Aug 30.

The annual report showed that Hong Leong Bank had 2.09 bilion outstanding shares and that the bank's largest shareholder was Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd with a 64.23% stake.

Meanwhile, the Employees Provident Fund was the second largest shareholder of Hong Leong Bank with a 9.87% stake, according to the annual report.

At Bursa's 12.30pm break on Wednesday (Oct 19), Hong Leong Bank's share price settled up 42 sen or 2.05% at RM20.90 for a market capitalisation of about RM43.68 billion.

The stock was traded at between RM20.56 and RM20.96 so far on Wednesday.