15th April 2020
STOP THE PRICE MANIPULATION OF BHIC SHARES NOW!
It is very strange for someone to offer to sell a stock at a lower price when others had already offered to buy higher. This is the case of the shares trading of Boustead Heavy Industries Holding Corporation (BHIC) Bhd that Patriot highlighted recently to protect the interest of the military personnel. Something sinister is going on.
For two days in a row, Monday 13 April and Tuesday 14 April 2020 this strange phenomenon happened. A certain party sold BHIC shares at lower prices when there were already bids from others to buy much higher. This is illogical unless someone is desperately trying to press down the stock price with an ulterior motive to gain a majority stake. In Patriot’s last two statements on 6 and 11 April we made the case for the necessity of LTAT (Armed Forces Fund Board) to protect BHIC shares. We also suggested that there could be some parties attempting a hostile takeover of BHIC in view of the small-cap listed company’s strategic business and potential for mega profits.
Patriot’s statements must have attracted much attention among those in the stock market and corporate circles because for the first time in more than three years, on Monday and Tuesday 13 and 14 April, very significant volumes of BHIC shares at 312,100 and 430,200 respectively were traded. The surge in interest and the high volume trades could have pushed the stock price much higher to 78 sen on Monday (the highest price traded) and even higher on Tuesday had it not been systematically pressed down by some parties with takeover intent.
On Monday 13 April at about 4.48 pm (12 minutes to closing time), when there were already 10,000 shares at the Buy Q (bid prices and quantities), and when the last traded price was 73.5 sen, someone put up 14,600 shares in the Sell Q (offer prices and quantities) at 65.5 sen or 7 sen lower. Similar occurrence happened on Tuesday 14 April. Also at about 4.48 pm when the last traded price at 4.45 pm was at 72.5 sen, and there were bids to buy 3,300 shares at 72.5 sen, someone deliberately offered to sell 7,000 shares at 64.5 sen or 8 sen lower. These two occurrences were very obvious price manipulation just before the close of the trading days. The data and information mentioned are from Bursa Malaysia system feed and can be made available to corporate, institutional and retail clients.
There were also other conducts of price manipulations throughout both trading days. When prices had already been traded higher, there were frequent sell-down and unloading significant quantities to roll back the price. Breaking up to multiple trades for the Buy Q and Sell Q was also employed as a tactic in price manipulation. Several of these trades done were in 100 to a few hundred shares. This does not make sense because most, if not all, shareholders of BHIC would be the big timers. The small timers would have been squeesed out by now. Furthermore, for every trade there is a minimum charge like clearing fee, brokerage commission and stamp duty, that makes it expensive to sell or buy at such small number of shares. Division into smaller trades and distributing them to several persons seems to be a ploy to achieve obscurity.
Patriot cannot remain idle watching this stealth assault on BHIC when the whole country is focused on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. As mentioned in our last statement, this apparent hostile takeover is not altruistic towards LTAT and the military personnel, but merely for profits. We urge LTAT, Boustead Holdings and BHIC to take proactive actions to foil the unwelcomed attempt of hostile takeover of BHIC. The management team must step up to be seen as active business people and defend BHIC, and not be mere fund managers. An immediate statement to the effect from LTAT and BHIC is in desperate need.
BG Dato Mohamed Arshad Raji (Rtd)
President, Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan
www.patriotkebangsaan.org.my
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