Seacera ... May11

The entry of TA Securities Holdings Bhd as a substantial shareholder of Seacera is expected to give the company a new lease of life. TA is the second largest shareholder with 10 million shares or 17.06% equity stake. Its largest shareholder – Synergy Platform Sdn Bhd holds 20.06%.

Synergy Platform was until 2010 the vehicle of Datuk Yusof@Mohd Yusof Abd Hamid. But in the middle of 2010, he sold his stake in Synergy Platform to Datuk Shamsul Najmi Shamsuddin, an exco member of UMNO Youth.

Shamsul came on board as a director of Seacera in April 2008. Prior to that, he was the Ministry of Information and also served as press secretary for a minister in the PM’s dept. Other political figures in Seacera include a former member of parliament, Datuk Mansor Masilon and Halim@Ab Halim Ismail, who are well known in UMNO Kelantan circles. Both are non executive independent directors.

TA acquired the shares in a single block at 60 sen a share for a total of rm6 million. What TA Securities plans to do with Seacera is not clear. It is also not known whether TA Securities will be in Seacera for the long haul.

Seacera is proposing to acquire 31 acres in Kamunting, Perak for rm8.78 million, largely be satisfied by shares. In FY2010 annual report, the company stated that it was looking into property development to seek out opportunities for income diversification, from its core business as a tile maker. Thus, it could be a synergy between TA Enterprise and Seacera in the property development.

It had announced a fundraising exercise late 2010. The rights issue were proposed at a par value of rm1.00.

As at end Dec 2010, Seacera had a net asset per share of rm1.43.

TA bought the block from Datuk Samsuddin Abu Hassan.

For FY2010 ended Dec 31,2010, it posted a net profit of rm3.5 million on the back of rm90.4 million.

As at end Dec 2010, Seacera had cash and cash equivalent of rm5 billion, while its short term borrowings were rn54.1 million and long term debt of rm4.6 million. It had shareholders’ funds of rm84.1 million. Including reserves of rm2.51 million.

In June 2011, Noble Summer Sdn Bhd surfaced as a substantial shareholder with a 9.04% stake or 5.3 million shares. Noble Summer largely controlled by 25 year old Mohd Hafiz Mohd Zainul and 30 year old Siti Badariah Ismail.

There has also been a change at the helm of Seacera, with Zulkarnin Ariffin taking over as MD in mid Feb 2011. Zulkarnin previously had stints with MMC Corp and Furquan Business Organization Bhd, handling finance portfolios.

From these changes, it is apparent that something is indeed brewing at Seacera.