Up and until now, the plan that was hatched in the den of thieves looks set to be heading for the jackpot. The carpenters from Muar had a firm offer to purchase its 19,200,000 shares on the table. The Siow brothers were sitting handsomely on 12,220,150 shares, ready to cash in richly. Just when they are enjoying the melody of jingle bells that seems to have arrived earlier on October 25, rather than December 25, a paralysing disaster struck abruptly and the palace of Caesar was in ruins almost instantaneously.

In a devastating announcement to them, Bursa Malaysia declared on October 27, 2004 that Lii Hen share is now a designated securities and it will takes effect the next morning. The avalanche that was unleashed by Bursa Malaysia at the peak of Lii Hen share price at RM 6.80 reverberated with three limit-downs, sending a powerful tremor to the men in the same den.

The stake of 12,220,150 shares that was held by the Siow brothers turned out to be the ash wood stake that was stabbed into the heart of a vampire. The fat profit that was piling up with the ascend of Lii Hen share price suddenly vanished into thin air. With the deteriorating share price and mounting selling pressures, contra losses are heaping onto the Siow brothers.

Adding salt to the wound, a big chunk of the shares of Siow brothers were force-sold in the market due to the crumbling stock price and the demise of their grand plan. Siow Chung Peng's stake of Lii Hen shares was cut by 2,135,350 shares between October 28, 2004 and November 25, 2004 according to his lodgement of Form 29B. His brother Siow Chung Lin disposed a total of 1,161,000 shares and had since ceased to be a substantial shareholder through the announcement of November 30, 2004.

The sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The carpenters of Assets Muar Sdn Bhd are not spared, either. Under the requirements of designated securities, all purchases of Lii Hen are to be settled by way of cash in advance and financing of any sort is disallowed. Presumably the purchaser of the 32% stake held by Assets Muar Sdn Bhd was under certain financing options from Maybank Securities which had issued the letter of offer to purchase on October 7, 2004. This seemingly solid offer is now rendered worthless by the sauce for the gander, as evidenced by the lapse of offer to purchase on November 10, 2004. The carpenters have just been snatched and deprived of their eight figures pay cheque by this move of Bursa Malaysia.

We are puzzled by this drastic action of Bursa Malaysia along with some market analysts and we have explained at length earlier. And we still cannot comprehend ourselves as to the deafening silence of Assets Muar Sdn Bhd whereupon Bursa Malaysia had robbed them under the broad daylight their pot of gold, seemingly through no fault of them whatsoever. The only logical explanation we can find is that their pot of gold has just morphed into a Pandora's box.

The carpenters must have weighed all the options after this episode of Waterloo. For it is not only a daunting task to take on Bursa Malaysia to state its case for the sale of their 32% stake in view of the trading curb of which they were victimised without cause, but it may risk them having to open up the box that contained the devils put in by Zeus. The odds are not in their favour as the risk going forward far outpaced the reward. Consequently, the carpenters chose a total lockdown and let the winter sets in. Let the thick snow of the freezing winter bury the box eternally, they thought.

It did. The box was kept buried for almost eight years. And for almost eight years what went behind of Lii Hen's debacle in the year 2004 was largely hidden from the eyes of the public. Just when they hope the memory of Waterloo would fade with the passage of time along with their finger prints in the Italian job, little did they know devils have been slipping out quietly from the box since 2006.

Who among the men from the same den would want to disturb the rather serene life after a lost war? The carpenters still get to keep their shareholdings in Lii Hen intact since there was no deal. It was the Siow brothers that were seen to be at the losing end of the bargain. Feeling short changed and rather aggrieved, the Siow brothers walked into the gate of the regulators that caused them the disaster. How ironic and moronic was that!

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