Ibrahim (fourth left), Ng (third left) and other Suria Capital personnel at the press conference yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: Suria Capital Holdings Berhad is hopeful of an economic growth in Sabah, which in turn will affect the growth of the state’s port industry.
“If there is economic growth in Sabah, it would have a positive impact on our ports. So, in a sense, we are dependent on that growth.
“I think this (fostering economic growth) is what the government is trying to do…our ports would expand if there is an economic growth,” Suria Capital Holdings chairman Tan Sri Ibrahim Menudin told reporters at a press conference during Suria Capital’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) 2019.
“I think 2019 will be challenging, not just for Sabah but for Malaysia and the whole world. So we will see how this will impact us at the beginning of this year.
“We hope that it will not affect us that much because the port business is quite steady,” he said.
Ibrahim cited the trade war between China and the United States as well as the ‘volatile’ global oil price as among the factors.
Group Managing Director Ng Kiat Min also echoed Ibrahim’s contention that 2019 would be a challenging year for the industry.
“For 2019, in terms of the stock market, we had witnessed that there was a drop in the shares.
“Of course, going forward in the immediate term, we will see some challenges in our economy. This will not only affect our state as I would say that it would also affect the national level or probably even the global level,” said Ng.
Since Suria Group runs all the ports in Sabah, its state of economy would be reflective of Sabah’s economy, Ng added.
Ibrahim also announced that Suria Capital would be issuing bonus shares to its shareholders.
“The shareholders have approved for the company to undertake a bonus issue up to 58,278,398 new ordinary shares in Suria on the basis of one bonus for every five existing Suria shares held on the entitlement date, which will be determined and announced at a later date upon receipt of all relevant approvals for the bonus issue,” he said.
With this exercise, the ordinary share capital is expected to increase from 288,183,992 shares pre-bonus to 349,670,390 shares post bonus period.
The actual number of the new bonus shares will be based on the number of Suria shares in issue on the entitlement date.
The approval was given during the said EGM.