Bintai Kinden chairman, executive director forced to sell their shares due to margin calls

KUALA LUMPUR (April 27): Bintai Kinden’s non-independent and non-executive chairman Datuk Ibrahim Othman and executive director Noor Azri Noor Azerai have been forced to sell all their shares in the Practice Note 17 (PN17) company due to margin calls.

Ibrahim offloaded his entire 500,000 shares or a 0.06% stake in the open market for RM34,605. He sold one block of 79,000 shares at 6.5 sen per share on March 23 and another block of 421,000 shares at seven sen per share on March 24, according to a bourse filing.

Meanwhile, Noor Azri disposed of four block of shares totalling 12.6 million (or a 1.48% stake) between March 28 and 29 for RM758,806, another filing showed.

Bintai Kinden slipped into PN17 status last month after its wholly-owned unit, Optimal Property Management Sdn Bhd (OPM), defaulted on RM109 million worth of financing facilities, in relation to the construction of the Universiti Melaka (Unimel) student campus accommodation.

Noor Azri had blamed the Melaka government for not taking action to address payments of RM49.8 million owed to OPM by Kolej Teknologi Islam Melaka Bhd for the construction of the Unimel project.

Maybank suspends Bintai Kinden unit's financing facilities

Another unit of Bintai Kinden, Bintai Kindenko Sdn Bhd, was on Thursday notified by Malayan Banking Bhd that the company's four existing banking facilities totalling RM188 million have been suspended.

The banking facilities consist of a RM140 million blanket contract financing facility, RM8 million overdraft facility, RM30 million bank guarantee facility, and RM10 million foreign exchange contract facility.

“The suspension will have a negative impact on the company’s financial standing and/or the company’s ongoing projects and the company is in the midst of sourcing for new financier in financing the ongoing projects of the group,” said Bintai Kinden in a filing.

Bintai Kinden posted a net loss of RM1.72 million for the nine months ended Dec 31, 2022, versus a net profit of RM3.43 million for the previous corresponding period, on higher costs of operations and bad debts incurred. This was despite revenue for the nine months increasing to RM93.8 million from RM58.34 million previously, contributed by its mechanical and electrical business.

As at end-December 2022, the company’s current borrowings stood at RM32.77 million, while non-current borrowings stood at RM102.33 million.

At the closing bell on Thursday, Bintai Kinden shares were down 12.5% or half a sen at 3.5 sen, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM31.26 million. The counter has fallen 65% year to date.