Tiger tales

TIGER Synergy Bhd, a property developer and furniture maker, is a company that isn’t easy to understand.

For starters, its shares often appear on the top volume list of Bursa Malaysia. Oftentimes big blocks of its shares get traded in off market deals.

And yet, nothing substantive seems to be taking place at the company to improve its financial position. It reported losses for its financial year ended June 30, 2018. In fact it has been in the red in the last four financial years. But this week, two news items related to Tiger Synergy surfaced.

Tiger announced it intended to venture into the stockbroking business in Hong Kong. It said it had entered into an agreement with an Australian listed company to buy the latter’s Hong Kong stockbroking unit.

Tiger Synergy has since said that the deal is subject to approvals from the Securities and Futures Commission Hong Kong and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

However what it has not explained is why is a property developer and furniture maker going into the stock broking business in Hong Kong and secondly, what are the chances of the Hong Kong authorities approving Tiger Synergy to become the owner of a financial institution there?

This is considering that all regulators put owners through a strict fit and proper test. The other news item that surfaced this week is that Datuk Tan Wei Lian the major owner and executive chairman of Tiger Synergy, has now bought into troubled tile maker Seacera Group Bhd.

This has got one wondering if Tan’s entry into Seacera is linked to efforts to fix the business of Tiger Synergy?

What is also noteworthy is that as StarBizweek had highlighted a week ago, while there are many suitors for Seacera, not many realise that the crown jewel in that company, namely a piece of land in Semenyih, is tied down by the owners of debt paper.

Not only will these investors have to be paid from any proceeds from that land sale, their consent is also required for any transaction involving that piece of land.