Tengku Ibrahim ordered to return shares
Former Perdana shareholder ordered by High Court to return shares he had held on behalf on Kho Tian Boo by today.
PETALING JAYA: Tengku Datuk Ibrahim Petra Tengku Indra Petra ( pic), the former substantial shareholder of Perdana Petroleum Bhd, has been ordered by the High Court to return the shares in the company that he had held on behalf of his former partner Kho Tian Boo by today.
On Jan 11, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that Tengku Ibrahim was holding 833,860 Perdana Petroleum shares in trust, on behalf of Kho, and ordered Tengku Ibrahim to transfer these shares back within seven days.
The High Court also ordered Tengku Ibrahim to pay damages, an interest of 5% on the damages and costs to Kho, according to the court transcript made available to StarBiz.
Tengku Ibrahim and Kho had founded Perdana Petroleum, formerly known as Petra Perdana Bhd, in the early 1990s and went on to list the company in 2000. Kho is the father of Perdana Petroleum executive directors Datuk Henry Kho Poh Eng and Francis Koh Pho Wat.
Tengku Ibrahim and Kho have been embroiled in a two-year trial over a block of 10 million shares in Perdana Petroleum, which the former was allegedly supposed to have transferred to Kho after both parties had signed a sale and purchase (S&P) agreement.
Kho had first entered into an S&P with Tengku Ibrahim in late December 1999 to buy 400,000 shares in Petra Resources Sdn Bhd for RM1.92mil. A share swap following the listing of Petra Perdana then had resulted in the acquisition of 833,860 shares in the company at a ratio of 2.086. However, Kho claims these shares had multiplied to 10 million shares taking into account the many rights and bonus issues between the years 2000 and 2009. In 2010, Kho filed a suit to recover the 10 million shares, which accounted for a 3.36% stake in Perdana Petroleum Bhd.
However, the court last Friday said that it was not satisfied that Kho had paid for these rights and bonus
issues and so directed the return of only the 833,860 shares that had been exchanged via the share swap en route to the company’s listing.
At press time, it was understood that Tengku Ibrahim was considering appealing and was awaiting advice from his lawyers, while Kho was looking at the next course of action to prove payment for the rights and bonus issues to recover the 10 million shares he is claiming.
Based on Perdana Petroleum’s share price of RM1.20 yesterday, this block of shares are worth RM12mil.
To be noted is that the case does not involve Perdana Petroleum and that the connection of this suit and the listed entity is the shares in dispute.
To recap, Tengku Ibrahim’s problems in Perdana Petroleum began in late 2009 with the sale of part of the company’s stake in subsidiary Petra Energy Bhd. This was followed by the sale of a 25.03% stake in Petra Energy to one Shorefield Resources Sdn Bhd, leaving Perdana Petroleum with a 29.59% stake in Petra Energy.
This sparked a feud between Perdana Petroleum’s board members and its management that led to the ousting of Tengku Ibrahim from the company along with four other directors in a marathon 13-hour EGM in February 2010.
Before his removal, Tengku Ibrahim – the former executive chairman and chief executive officer of Petra Perdana – owned a 12% stake in the company. In November 2010, he ceased to be a substantial shareholder.