Bahvest MD Lo Fui Ming, ED Lo Teck Yong resign

KUALA LUMPUR (May 31): Bahvest Resources Bhd’s managing director and CEO Datuk Lo Fui Ming have resigned from the group, ahead of its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) seeking his removal and two other directors on June 13.

Bahvest executive director Lo Teck Yong, who is also Fui Ming’s son, has also tendered his resignation from the group today, according to documents sighted by The Edge.

The EGM had called for the duo’s resignation, as well as Bahvest non-independent non-executive chairman Datuk Seri Md Kamal Bilal.

Formerly the single largest shareholder of the Sabah gold mining group with a 16.09% direct stake, Fui Ming ceased to be a substantial shareholder on May 11.

Bahvest operates a gold mining site in Tawau, Sabah, which is leased from Southsea Gold Sdn Bhd, a company that is 75% owned by Fui Ming. The site is located within a bigger land area earmarked for gold mining activity.

On April 26, Bahvest received notices from Marlex Trading Ltd, Innosabah Capital Holdings Sdn Bhd, Datuk Freddy Lim Nyuk Sang, Yong Fen Yoo and Chong Tzu Khen, who sought to move resolutions to remove the three existing directors and appoint Chong Tzu Khen, Law Ngia Meng and Chong Mee Fah @ Frederick Chong to the board at a proposed EGM.

Shares of the company rose to as high as 40 sen in April following the EGM requisition, before crashing to 12 sen after the group received a letter of demand of RM20.4 million from Southsea over wrongful occupation beyond its leased area since 2017.

Bahvest has provided a provision of RM13 million as a non-refundable deposit to Southsea to commence negoations over compensation for trespassing the land, according to its latest quarter results.

In the financial year ended March 31, 2023, (FY2023), Bahvest turned a loss of RM10.64 million or 0.86 sen per share, from a net profit of RM12.43 million or 1.01 sen per share year ago, while revenue slipped 4.42% to RM142.71 million, from RM149.3 million.

Shares of Bahvest closed unchanged at 22 sen, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM266.82 million. Year to date, the counter is down 27.87%.