The receiver and manager (R&M) of Perwaja Steel Sdn Bhd, Lim Tian Huat of insolvency firm Messrs Rodgers Reidy & Co, is in the midst of conducting valuation for the building and assets of the company which went into receivership in January this year.

On Jan 24, 2018, RHB Bank Bhd, one of the chargees, appointed Lim, who is Rodgers Reidy director of Malaysia and Singapore offices, as R&M of the properties of Perwaja Steel.

“R&M to sell assets of Perwaja. Still conducting valuation of the land and building and all assets of the company,” Lim told SunBiz in an email reply.

According to its filing with the Companies Commission of Malaysia, Perwaja Steel has 22 unsatisfied charges out of 40 charges. A charge is an interest or right which a lender or creditor obtains in a property of a company by way of security that the company will pay back the debt.

The company has current and non-current assets of about RM931.73 million and current liabilities of RM2.53 billion.

Perwaja Steel was incorporated on Oct 11, 1989. It ceased business operations in the manufacturing and trading of direct reduction iron, steel billets, beam blanks and blooms in 2013.

Its parent Perwaja Holdings was delisted from Bursa Malaysia Securities on May 30, 2017 after four years of being a Practice Note 17 (PN 17) company. In February 2017, a planned RM1.8 billion injection to revive the group’s plant in Kemaman, Terengganu, by Chinese conglomerate Tianjin Zhiyuan Investment Group Co Ltd lapsed.

For the nine-month period ended March 31, 2017, Perwaja’s net loss stood at RM181.33 million versus RM294.95 million in the same period a year ago. Revenue fell 40.6% from RM498,000 to RM296,000.

Directors Tan Sri Pheng Yin Huah and Datuk Henry Pheng Chin Guan declined to comment while substantial shareholder Tan Sri Abu Sahid Mohamed did not reply to queries from SunBiz.

Yin Huah and Chin Guan are also directors of Kinsteel Bhd, which owns some 28% of Perwaja Holdings, which in turn wholly owns Perwaja Steel.

Last Friday, the court postponed the decision to stay the winding-up order against Kinsteel and its wholly owned subsidiary Kin Kee Marketing Sdn Bhd to March 16, 2018.

Duar Tuan Kiat of Messrs Ernst & Young has been appointed as the liquidator of Kinsteel, and is empowered to take into custody or under his control all the properties to which Kinsteel is or appears to be entitled.

Trading in Kinsteel shares has been suspended since Jan 5, after the regulator rejected its application for a further extension of time to submit its regularisation plan. The decision to delist the company has been deferred pending its appeal along with the submission of a new restructuring plan.