Khaled Nordin appointed Boustead Chairman, and it looks like some UMNO cronies knew about it much earlier, and made some moves to earn a windfall.
What was initially going to be a profit for the government, has become a profit for selected individuals who had this insider info, because the shares owned by the government were cynically sold off to these UMNO kakis.
It’s hard to detect because the trades happened in the stock market. But for those not familiar, this is how it works:
GLCs are controlled by the government by way of holding a substantial percentage of shares. For example in Boustead’s case, Urusharta Jamaah, a government vehicle, prior to 13 April 2020 owned 18,539,967 units of shares in Boustead.
A cynical and planned sell-off began around the 13th of April. Quietly, of course, so that the shares disposed of by the government will be picked up by cronies who are on standby, instead of being swallowed up by the open market.
A total of about 1.5 million shares Urusharta Jamaah owns in Boustead were cynically disposed of, then suspectedly picked up by UMNO cronies.
13 April: 118,000 units disposed (0.72)
14 April: 209,800 units disposed
15 April: 349,900 units disposed
16 April: 329,500 units disposed (0.71)
17 April: 180,900 units disposed (0.685)
21 April: 134,900 units disposed (0.66)
22 April: 30,800 units disposed (0.64)
23 April: 53,400 units disposed
24 April: 125,500 units disposed
27 April: The day people started suspecting something is brewing (0.57)
28 April: Price jumped to (0.615)
29 April: Price jumped to (0.685)
30 April: Price jumped to (0.725), and Khaled Nordin announced new Chairman
14 April: 209,800 units disposed
15 April: 349,900 units disposed
16 April: 329,500 units disposed (0.71)
17 April: 180,900 units disposed (0.685)
21 April: 134,900 units disposed (0.66)
22 April: 30,800 units disposed (0.64)
23 April: 53,400 units disposed
24 April: 125,500 units disposed
27 April: The day people started suspecting something is brewing (0.57)
28 April: Price jumped to (0.615)
29 April: Price jumped to (0.685)
30 April: Price jumped to (0.725), and Khaled Nordin announced new Chairman
As you can see, the price of Boustead’s shares steadily plummeted since 13 April 2020. It didn’t really set off any alarm bells because the volume was quite low. The amount sold was just enough to not set off alarm bells. So not many normal traders noticed, and even if they did they wouldn’t be paying attention.
But UMNO cronies who knew Khaled Nordin was about to be appointed knew what was going to happen. They acquired all these shares disposed of by the government, cheaper and cheaper day by day.
And when Patriot questioned the sell-off on the 27th of April, immediately the sell-off stopped the next day. And on the 28th the price of Boustead’s stocks jumped.
By this time, about 1.5 million were already disposed of by the government and picked up by UMNO kakis.
Maybe if PATRIOT didn’t expose this, the sell-off would have continued and more shares would be picked up by the UMNO cronies. Maybe.
So after PATRIOT’s exposé on the 27th and Boustead’s lame denial that same evening, the sell-off immediately stopped. On 28th the price started rebounding and on 30 April after Bursa was closed, Khaled Nordin was announced the new Chairman.
This means the UMNO cronies who picked up the shares disposed of by Urusharta Jamaah since 13 April are going to receive their money soon. The Boustead shares they purchased cheaply for the past two weeks are going to be worth much more.
This also means that if PATRIOT did not make the exposé, more shares would have been disposed of by the government, more shares will be picked up cheaply by UMNO kakis, Khaled Nordin’s appointment is announced much later and the UMNO kakis would have made much more money doing insider trading.
Well, this is how it’s been done all these while. What was a profit for the government that was for the country, in the end, became profit for selected cronies.
(posted as forwarded to me)