Malaysian court defers TRI share suit


Tajudin Ramli is the former chairman of Malaysian Airline System (MAS).

Staff and wires

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia's High Court has postponed until Thursday a bid by high-profile tycoon Tajudin Ramli for an injunction against a sell-off of shares in his listed flagship, Technology Resources Industries (TRI).

The shares are now held by the state asset management company, Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional, known as Danaharta.

On Monday High Court Judge Vincent Ng Kim Khoay decided to hold over the hearing until Thursday, lawyers told Reuters news agency.

No reason was given for the decision, although Danaharta's lawyers were expected to argue they needed more time to respond to Tajudin's suit.

Tajudin, the former chairman of Malaysian Airline System (MAS), wants to stop Danaharta from selling the TRI shares transferred to it after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis as part of the agency's clean-up of Malaysia's banking system.

Naluri stake, too

Danaharta acquired about 20 percent of Tajudin's 24 percent TRI stake, plus about 40 percent of his stake in another listed company, Naluri, when the businessman defaulted on bank loans.

Malaysian media reports say Tajudin has until June to repay his obligations to Danaharta.

But the Bernama news agency quoted a statement Sunday by Danaharta in which it said that "non-performing loan borrowers need to take responsibility for the conduct of their account and face the consequences accordingly."

The TRI stake is regarded as valuable to a strategic investor such as state-owned Telekom Malaysia, because TRI's wholly owned subsidiary Celcom Malaysia runs the country's second largest mobile phone network.

Telekom, which is seen as a potential bidder for TRI, has already expressed interest in buying the shares from Danaharta.

TRI shares were down one cent at M$2.16 in afternoon trade Monday. Telekom was off half a perent to M$9.15.

Reuters contributed to this report.