KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd announced today that it will sell new shares to as-yet unnamed third-party investors, making up not more than 10 per cent of the total stake.
In a Bursa Malaysia announcement, the media group said it hopes to raise gross proceeds of RM2,103,943 by selling up to 11,073,383 units of its stock at 19 sen per unit.
This exercise is expected to take four months, handled by UOB Kay Hian Securities (M) Sdn Bhd.
This comes as the group announced today that it has defaulted on two loans totalling RM1,184,871.
The company owed RM530,121 to Bank Muamalat, and RM654,750 to Maybank Islamic Bhd, said a separate announcement.
“Due to financial constraints, the company is not able to meet its obligation to repay the banks and therefore, had defaulted in profit and principal payment to the banks,” said the announcement.
“The company intends to submit a proposal to restructure the loan facilities with the banks. In the meantime, the company is working towards restructuring all its loan facilities in line with its business transformation plan.”
Its stock was priced 21.5 sen per unit at closing time today, its lowest since June.
The group publishes the controversial Malay broadsheet Utusan Malaysia, tabloid Kosmo!, and several magazines, including Mastika and URTV.
Earlier this month, the Education Ministry instructed schools, tertiary institutions and other institutions under its purview to cease its subscription of Utusan Malaysia.
The memo was issued by Wan Saiful Wan Jan, National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) chairman and special adviser to minister Maszlee Malik.
This week, bookstore Gerakbudaya, which organised an event on the Malayan Emergency, had accused the paper of running inaccurate reports on a forum on revising history text books for three days consecutively, and misinterpreted the forum’s content as if it was promoting communism.
