KUALA LUMPUR (April 17): Loss-making Salutica Bhd, which was slapped with an unusual market activity (UMA) query earlier on Monday (April 17), highlighted its legal dispute with Apple Malaysia Sdn Bhd as a possible cause for the recent jump in its share price and volume.

The Ipoh-based electronic manufacturer was referring to the April 3 announcement, saying its wholly owned subsidiary Salutica Allied Solutions Sdn Bhd has filed a writ of summons and statement of claim against Apple Malaysia at the High Court.

“As at the date of this announcement, the legal suit is ongoing, with the original trial dates in the month of June remaining unchanged,” said Salutica in response to Bursa’s UMA query.

The Edge Malaysia weekly reported in its April 17-23 issue that investors are showing interest in the stock, as its court case with Apple Malaysia draws closer.

Salutica started legal action against Apple Malaysia in 2022, claiming the latter used a wireless pairing process that is similar to the content of Salutica’s patent. The group alleges that the pairing method used by Apple infringes upon its patent, which it applied for in 2012.

Other than this court case, there is no corporate development relating to the group’s business and affairs that has not been previously announced, the group noted.

The group also said that it is unaware of any credible rumour or report concerning its business and affairs that may account for the trading activity.

Shares of Salutica — which earlier opened at RM1.14 — jumped 29.36% or 32 sen to close at an intraday high of RM1.41 on Monday. This is the group’s highest share price recorded since December 2017.

At RM1.41, Salutica has a market capitalisation of RM601.36 million.

Its trading volume was 41.58 million, more than 16 times its 200-day average volume of 2.57 million — making it among the top 20 active stocks across the bourse.

The stock’s share price has been climbing steadily in these past few weeks, from 28 sen at end-March. Since the beginning of this year, its share price has soared 442% from 26 sen.

Amid the recent interest in the stock, Salutica chairman Leow Chan Khiang and several of its directors, including Chia Chee Hoong and Low Teng Lum, disposed of some of their shares. Leow and Chia sold 700,000 shares respectively, while Low offloaded 630,000 shares from April 6 to 14, according to bourse filings.

The group also saw the emergence of Cheong Siew Chyuan, who is also a shareholder of ViTrox Corp Bhd with a 1.26% stake, as a new substantial shareholder last week.

Cheong bought 4.43 million shares in the electronics manufacturer on April 12. Two days later, he bought 349,000 more shares in the company, raising his direct stake to 4.57%. Cheong also has an indirect stake of 2.65% in Salutica.

Salutica is currently 50.65% controlled by Ocean Enlightenment Sdn Bhd, a family vehicle held by managing director Joshua Lim and his father James Lim Chong Shyh, the former chief executive officer of Salutica.

Salutica has been loss making since its financial year ended June 30, 2019 (FY2019). For the first half ended Dec 31, 2022 (1HFY2023), the group widened its net loss to RM6.59 million from RM4.9 million for the same quarter in the previous year, mainly because it had stopped producing computer peripherals, while it experienced a low order volume for its Truly Wireless System models.

The group’s revenue also dropped to RM37.27 million, from RM72.5 million in 1HFY2022.