Denko ... Sep11

Denko Industrial Corp Bhd manufactures plastic injection moulding, high-precision plastic parts, vacuum foams and packaging materials.

The company which has been in the red in the past two financial.

The company saw several significant shareholding changes. Datuk Ong Choo Meng of Hextar Chemicals Sdn Bhd emerged as a substantial stakeholder with 10.99% of Denko. Also emerging as a substantial shareholder is Tan Chen Wei who has an 8.03% interest.

From whom the individuals acquired the stake is not known. The only announcement came from ABB Nominees, a unit of Affin Bank (loan recovery division) which disclosed last month that it had disposed of 12.1 million shares representing about 11.5% of Denko’s paid-up capital in the open market at an average price of 12.2 sen each between Oct 19 and Dec 31, 2009.

Chong Hut Hoo, a non-independent executive director of Denko, also reduced his interest in the company by divesting 2.5 million shares at 28 sen each. Chong still has 2.89% in Denko.

Denko’s single largest shareholder is its executive chairman Yong Boon Cheong who has a 17.03% stake. The interest held by Ong together with Tan is marginally more than what Yong holds in Denko. Ong and Tan are both from Klang.

While not much is known about Tan, Ong is group managing director of Hextar Chemicals, a company that is involved in trading and distribution of agrochemicals. It is a subsidiary of Hextar Holdings Bhd which was due for listing in 2007 but it withdrew.

Then, Hextar proposed an IPO of 33.28 million shares and offer for sale of 55.9 million shares of 20 sen each at an offer price of 90 sen but withdrew due to the company allegedly being in the midst of resolving tax matters that would have impacted financial performance. It had then returned all monies to potential investors after it withdrew the listing proposal and stated that it would explore all options including listing on Bursa Malaysia in the future.

Hextar Chemicals made a profit after tax of RM19.3 million and raked in revenue of RM252.3 million for the financial year ended Dec 31.

Denko recorded a net loss of RM2.62 million for 1Q11 ended June 30, worsening from the same quarter last year, which saw a loss of RM1.52 million. According to an announcement to Bursa, the increased loss for the current quarter was “mainly due to lower sales and poorer margins”.

For FY11 ended March 31, Denko just managed to stay above water by registering a net profit of RM500,000 on a turnover of RM113.5 million based on its unaudited results.