KUALA LUMPUR: Hai-O Enterprise Bhd’s managing director Tan Kai Hee said his involvement in the Unico Holdings Bhd’s dispute does not affect the development of Hai-O, which is expected to have an even better performance this year.
“Firstly, the company’s (Hai-O) share price did not fall but went up. Secondly, the company’s sales did not fall but went up. In fact, it went up even more,” he told reporters here yesterday.
Tan said Hai-O would be announcing its financial results for the first half of the financial year ending April 30, 2008 soon and investors could expect something good from the company.
In the first quarter ended July 31, 2007, Hai-O almost doubled its net profit to RM7.06 million from RM3.54 million a year earlier, while revenue increased by more than 50% to RM59.28 million.
Tan was speaking to reporters after Hai-O postponed a signing ceremony to acquire 28 acres of land from Bata (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd for RM45 million.
According to an official from Hai-O, the event had to be postponed at the last minute to a later date as the company needed to sort out some legal issues that had been overlooked.
Tan has been speaking out publicly against the proposed capital reduction exercise in Unico Holdings and claimed that the move was detrimental to the interests of minority shareholders. He also alleged that some directors had benefited from the exercise.
Subsequently, Unico Holdings chairman Tan Sri Lim Guan Teik and the company’s adviser Tan Sri Ngan Ching Wen filed two defamation lawsuits against Tan, who is also a former director of the company.
On the dispute, Tan said instead of affecting Hai-O, his involvement had been “helpful” because he was seen as someone who had no self-interest in the matter and he was just helping affected shareholders.