KUALA LUMPUR (June 15): Practice Note 17 (PN17) group Bintai Kinden Corp Bhd has ceased to be a substantial shareholder of Genomics Resource Centre Bhd (MGRC).

The mechanical and electrical engineering services provider had disposed of 1.82 million shares in MGRC on Tuesday (June 13), a bourse filing on Thursday showed. This trimmed its stake in MGRC to 3.56% from 5.19% as at July last year.

Bintai Kinden emerged as a substantial shareholder of MGRC in February 2022 after acquiring a 5.03% stake to diversify its business into the healthcare sector.

Recently, the group said it is conducting an investigation against three of its former directors, but did not disclose their names.

The scope of the investigation includes examining unauthorised trading of shares, potential insider trading, involvement of other directors or former company secretary, and the overall effectiveness of the group's corporate governance controls.

In May, Bintai Kinden had announced the resignation of three directors: non-executive chairman Datuk Ibrahim Othman, executive director Noor Azri Noor Azerai and non-executive vice/deputy chairman Ong Choon Lui.

Bintai Kinden had slipped into PN17 status in March after its wholly-owned unit Optimal Property Management Sdn Bhd defaulted on a RM109 million Islamic financing facility.

On Thursday, Bintai Kinden’s share price closed unchanged at eight sen for a market capitalisation of RM71.45 million. The counter has fallen 20% year-to-date

MGRC finished down 2.5 sen or 5.43% at 43.5 sen, valuing the company at RM56.64 million.