Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, at the Annual General Meeting of Durian Daun Branch, Malacca at Malacca DAP Premises at No. 33A Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Malacca on Tuesday 30th June 1981 at 7 p.m.
Peak Hua Holdings Bhd.’s file in the Registry of Companies has disappeared for two weeks
Last Thursday, I called on Peak Hua Holdings Bhd., the Perak State MCA holdings company, to explain it has registered a prospectus as required by the Companies Act 1965 before inviting for public subscription to its shares.
This was because Peak Hua Holdings Bhd. were distributing tens of thousands of shares application forms to the public, without being accompanied by prospectus, which was again required by law.
The penalty of committing the offence of circulating or distributing shares application forms without a prospectus is imprisonment for two years or a fine of five thousand dollars.
On Sunday, the Deputy Finance Minister, Datuk Mak Hon Kam, admitted in Ipoh that the Peak Hua Holdings Bhd., set up by Perak MCA, had collected subscriptions totaling $26 million in the psat two weeks, and hoped to collect $30 million by the closing date on July 7.
Datuk Mak did not say however that the Peak Hua Holdings Bhd. has registered a prospectus under the Companies Act 1965 to legally entitle it to invite subscription from the public to but its shares.
I had called on Peak Hua Holdings Bhd. to declare whether it had a registered prospectus with the Registry of Companies because the file on Peak Hua Holdings Bhd. in the Registry of Companies had disappeared for the last two weeks.
Searches at the Registry of Companies showed that the Matang Holdings Bhd., the Johore MCA holdings company, and the Panwa Development bhd., the Pahang MCA holdings company, both did not have registered prospectus with the Companies Registry to entitle them to invite public subscription to its shares lawfully.
The Peak Hua Holdings Bhd. file, however, had been missing since June 16. For the last one week, my secretary had been going to the Companies Registry or phoning up the Registry of Companies officials, they have not been able to uncover the file of the Peak Hua Holdings Bhd.
There is something very ‘fishy’ about the Peak Hua Holdings Bhd. and the other state MCA holdings company, which appeared to be ready to flout the laws achieve their particular objectives,
Last Wednesday, I gave the Matang Holdings Bhd. three days to publicly explain whether it had authorised the Johore MCA State and Divisions to collect some $50 million on its behalf, failing which I would be contacting the various relevant authorities about gross irregularities and even offences against the law.
The complete silence of the Matang Holdings Bhd. is most significant, demonstrating its guilty consciousness. I will begin to meet the various relevant authorities this week and next week to protect the innocent public who have been induced to invest over $100 million in MCA State holdings which had no lawful authority to collect such public subscriptions.
People who are prepared to flout the law designed to protect the public from being fleeced by unscrupulous financial manipulators are unlikely to have much regard for the public’s money.