KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 20): Less than one month into the role, Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd’s chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Farid Abu Hassan has stepped down, citing “biased regulatory prosecution aimed towards Serba Dinamik” as the reason behind his resignation.

Farid, 62, is the former special branch director of the Royal Malaysia Police Force (PDRM) and was appointed as the group’s chairman on Nov 24, 2021.

Following Farid’s resignation, the oil and gas service provider announced the redesignation of non-independent non-executive director Datuk Abdul Kadier Sahib as its new chairman effective Monday (Dec 20), its Bursa Malaysia filing showed.

“Datuk Abdul Kadier is a member of the Party Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak (PBB) and sat as an executive committee member at the State level of PBB Youth Wing for two terms, from 1985 to 1989. He is an active member of the Bumiputera Chamber of Commerce Sarawak (DUBS) and was elected as Chairman for the Bintulu branch in 1986 where he continued for three terms until 1991, thereafter advisor of DUBS from 1992 to 1994.

“Presently, he is the Vice President of DUBS at State level, a position he was elected to in 2014 and will continue to hold until 2024. He was appointed as a member of the Consultative Council to Local Government, whose main function was to advise the Bintulu Development Authority on the development and local government functions in Bintulu, for the periods between 1991 to 1997 and 2013 to 2021,” said the group.

Meanwhile, in a separate local bourse filing, Serba Dinamik also announced the resignation of its independent and non-executive director Siti Zaleha Sulaiman due to the same reason.

Zaleha, 57, was appointed to the board on July 7, 2021. She is the former head of corporate risk management at Bursa Malaysia.

On Dec 9, the High Court had dismissed Serba Dinamik’s application to recuse the presiding judge in the company's lawsuit against Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd.

The company had sought to recuse Justice Datuk Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin on the grounds that he had served in the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) in the past.

On Dec 15, the group had confirmed that it had defaulted on its US$222.22 million (RM939.77 million) senior unsecured sukuk which is due in 2022, and said the incident may significantly impact the group’s financial performance.

The group however said it "will be in close communications with its financiers to minimise any financial impact that may arise from the default".

A day before, Fitch Rating also further downgraded the group’s long-term issuer default rating to "RD" (restricted default) from "C".

The rating revision came after Fitch had on Nov 12 downgraded Serba Dinamik's long-term issuer default rating to "C" from "CCC-" after Serba Dinamik missed the interest payment on the sukuk and entered the 30-day grace period.

Besides Fitch, Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd and S&P Global Ratings have also downgraded Serba Dinamik's credit rating, citing the missed coupon payment.

Trading in the shares of Serba Dinamik has been suspended since Oct 22, after it failed to disclose the findings of a special independent review undertaken by Ernst & Young Consulting Sdn Bhd (EY Consulting) about an audit issue flagged by its then external auditor KPMG in May about some allegedly questionable transactions worth over RM4.5 billion.

Since then, the group, which is in legal tussles with Bursa Securities, EY Consulting, and KPMG over the audit issue, has also failed to submit its annual report for the financial year ended June 30, 2021 on time, despite getting a one-month extension up to Nov 30 to submit the report, together with its annual audited financial statements, as well as auditors' and directors' reports.

The group's shares last settled at 35 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.3 billion.