KUALA LUMPUR (July 27): Bursa Malaysia Securities has informed Pharmaniaga Bhd that it is "unable to consider" the company's proposed second private placement of new shares to the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT).

Pharmaniaga said it was told that as a Practice Note 17 (PN17) company it must ensure expeditious regularisation of its financial condition to warrant continued trading and listing on the exchange.

"The affected listed issuer must submit a regularisation plan to the Securities Commission Malaysia or Bursa Securities which is sufficiently comprehensive and enables the affected listed issuer to regularise its financial condition," Bursa Securities told the company.

"In this respect, Bursa Securities is unable to consider the proposed private placement II as a second fund-raising exercise on a stand-alone basis. Bursa Securities further indicated that the proposed private placement II may be included as part of the company’s proposed regularisation plan."

Pharmaniaga said it will submit an appeal to the decision for Bursa Securities’ consideration.

On July 21, the pharmaceutical group, which has booked negative net operating cash flow since 2020, announced that its largest shareholder LTAT had confirmed the subscription of the placement shares which will be satisfied in cash at an issue price to be determined later.

Based on the indicative issue price of 35.6 sen and assuming 140.45 million shares being placed out, the placement was expected to raise gross proceeds of about RM50 million.

The proceeds from the private placement was to be used as interim measures to bridge the group's working capital requirements while the group formulates a plan to regularise its financial condition to address the PN17 status.

On June 13, the group undertook its first private placement exercise of 131.02 million shares to raise an indicative amount of up to RM44.54 million for working capital.

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