SINCE peaking at an intraday high of 22 sen on May 17 – the highest level since it resumed trading on May 9 – Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd has drifted southwards by more than half with a slew of unpleasant developments stacked against the company.

Chief among the newsflow is a forced selling spree involving group managing director/CEO Datuk Dr Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah as he divested his stake in the global integrated oil & gas (O&G) outfit via three tranches of disposals.

On May 18, May 20 and On May 23, he was forced to sell a total of 18.35 million shares which trimmed his stake by 0.494% to 20.73% from 21.225%.

Not only that Abdul Karim’s forced selling exercise impacted Serba Dinamik’s share price, it also painted a negative impression that the founder has lost faith and “is gradually exiting the company”.

Such signal is not unfounded given co-founder Datuk Awang Daud Awang Putera had earlier disposed of his entire stake of 9.9 million shares at a mere 10 sen apiece on May 13.

Compounding the negative sentiment is a revelation by theedgemarkets.com yesterday (May 24) that Serba Dinamik has been slapped with yet another suit – this time from Malaysian Trustees Bhd which is the trustee for the RM100 mil Islamic Commercial Papers (ICP) that the company has defaulted on.

In a civil suit filed at the High Court on April 29, Malaysian Trustees is seeking a declaration that a dissolution event has occurred on the ICP together with an order to compel Serba Dinamik to pay the outstanding ICP amount of RM100 mil with compensation for late payment.

Malaysian Trustees is also seeking to execute a sale agreement with Serba Dinamik to acquire from the company its entire beneficial interest in the shariah-compliant business of Amanahraya Investment Management Sdn Bhd (ARIM) as part of the agreement under the dissolution of the ICP.

The RM100 mil price tag is definitely not ‘chicken feet’ by any mean given that Serba Dinamik had struggled to settle the RM16 mil compound meted out by the Securities Commission (SC) on the company and its four top executives (including Abdul Karim) in lieu of a charge under Section 369(a)(B) of the Capital Markets and Services Act for submitting a false statement involving a revenue of RM6.01 bil for the financial period ended Dec 31, 2020.

If this is not alarming enough, Serba Dinamik and its four direct and indirect subsidiaries are also entangled in a slew of court hearings following the filing of an application for leave from the court to enter a scheme of arrangement and a restraining order against its creditors.

For the record, six main financial institutions, namely HSBC Amanah Malaysia Bhd, Ambank Islamic Bhd, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd, MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd, Standard Chartered Saadiq Bhd and United Overseas Bank (M) Bhd which are syndicated and bilateral lenders have filed a winding-up petition against the group and its subsidiaries last month.

This followed Serba Dinamik’s failure to service its RM1.2 bil syndicated term financing. Having mooted a scheme of arrangement to restructure its debt obligations, the group said it is seeking its creditors’ approval for the scheme which proposed “a 100% return”.

Towards this end, Serba Dinamik said it has identified “some assets for immediate sale” to generate the cash flow required to meet the group’s liabilities.

For now, it seems that those who entered the counter as it shot up to 22 sen on May 17 have undoubtedly caught “flying daggers”.

At 9.50am, Serba Dinamik was unchanged at 10 sen with 28.9 milion shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM373 mil. – May 25, 2022

https://focusmalaysia.my/back-to-dire-straits-dim-prospect-for-serba-after-short-lived-rebound/