corporate law

Case Update: The MARA Decision on Appointment of Directors and Management Review

Lee ShihLeave a comment

The High Court decision in Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) v Dato’ Abd Rahim Adb Halim & Ors [2018] 8 CLJ 738; [2018] MLJU 1008 touched on some important points on the appointment of directors. It is also the first decision to briefly deal with the new right of management review under section 195 of the Companies Act 2016 (CA 2016).

Image: www.theedgemarkets.com

This dispute arose from the boardroom and shareholder tussle where MARA had requisitioned for an EGM of the company, Med-Bumikar. Med-Bumikar held a substantial stake in the listed entity, MBM Resources Bhd (MBMR). UMW had tabled an offer to purchase Med-Bumikar’s stake in MBMR. The crown jewel at the heart of the dispute was essentially MBMR’s 20% stake in Perodua. UMW already had approximately 38% interest in Perodua and this would allow UMW to have control over Perodua. Continue reading →

Practising Certificates for Company Secretaries: Proposed Regulations

Lee Shih3 Comments

The Companies Commission of Malaysia, or Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM), will be bringing into force the last remaining provision of the Companies Act 2016 (CA 2016). This is section 241 of the CA 2016 on the requirement for all company secretaries to register with SSM. SSM will issue practising certificates to all company secretaries.

In line with the coming into force of section 241 of the CA 2016, SSM has published  its Consultative Document on the Proposed Companies (Practising Certificate) Regulations 2019. SSM has invited comments on the Consultative Document by 30 October 2018.

I set out a bit of history leading up to this important provision for registration of all company secretaries, and my observations on the Consultative Document. Continue reading →

BFM Interview: Companies Bill 2015 – A Big Bang Approach

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About two weeks ago, I had a pre-recorded interview with BFM to share my views on the new Companies Bill 2015.

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This morning, the segment was aired as part of its Current Affairs series. You can click on to the podcast.

I generally shared why the new changes are to be welcomed and I traced the long process to arrive where we are at. On the one hand, we adopted the best practices from other jurisdictions. However, I also shared my personal thoughts on certain areas where we could have improved further. Finally, I shared how the different segments of the industry may be worried about the unknown and of the new.

Law for startups in Malaysia — building on the best foundations

Marcus van Geyzel10 Comments

The Malaysian startup scene has noticeably increased in vibrancy in the past couple of years. Many of us have friends or relatives who are somehow involved in the startup scene — either as founders or investors.

An increasing number of people — young and not-so-young, and some lawyers too — are moving away from traditional career paths and joining the startup ecosystem.

Other than my involvement with startups and investors via my corporate law practice, I’ve recently been working together with the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (“MaGIC”).

My
My “Law For Startups” workshop at MA2015.

MaGIC is funded by the Malaysian government, and you can read their mandate here. They are an exciting and ambitious group of people, and they aim to make Malaysia the startup capital of Asia.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been part of a couple of MaGIC initiatives so far this year:

Continue reading →

Companies Bill: Reforming Malaysia’s Corporate Landscape

Lee ShihLeave a comment

One of the significant areas I have been regularly speaking on is the upcoming Companies Bill. The Bill will revamp our aging Companies Act 1965 and bring long awaited reforms to our corporate landscape.

At the recent Malaysian Legal and Corporate Conference on 7 October 2015, I gave a short interview to The Edge TV.

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I was asked to give a very short summary on some of the changes we could expect in the law:

Continue reading →