KUALA LUMPUR (May 27): Bursa Malaysia has publicly reprimanded and imposed a fine of RM500,000 on Chean Meng Hee, a former executive director of Advance Information Marketing Bhd (KL:AIM), for breaching ACE Market listing requirements (ACE LR).

In a statement on Monday, Bursa said Chean breached rule 16.13(a) of the ACE LR, causing AIM to violate several provisions, including rule 12.18(b), by reselling 24.1 million treasury shares at a discounted price exceeding 5% of the weighted average market price on Oct 5, 2021.

Additionally, Chean caused AIM to breach rule 12.20 by only announcing the resale to Bursa on Oct 6, 2021, and violated rule 9.355(1)(a) by making inaccurate announcements about the resale prices.

Bursa emphasised the seriousness of contraventions of share buy-back requirements in Chapter 12 of the ACE LR, including rule 12.18, to safeguard investors' interests and maintain market integrity.

The regulator stressed that all listed companies must establish strong internal controls and supervision to ensure compliance with these requirements, preventing abuse or non-compliance.

"These controls should be adequately designed, effectively implemented, and monitored to prevent and detect any abuse or non-compliance of the share buy-back requirements," Bursa said, adding that all directors must also maintain the highest standards of integrity, accountability, corporate governance, and responsibility.

Shares in AIM settled unchanged at eight sen on Monday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM31.22 million.