A minority shareholder in a public listed company today filed a suit against another company which bought a substantial stake in the former without first making a general offer to all its shareholders.

Abdul Razak Mohamed Jalil is suing Linksun Avenue for its failure to adhere to the Securities Commission (SC) Act in making a general offer to the remaining shareholders of Autoways Holdings when it bought 37 percent of Autoways shares.

"Linksun is bound by law to make the general offer to the other shareholders of Autoways unless it has been given a waiver by the Securities Commission. To date, no such waiver has been obtained," said Abdul Razak in his statement of claim.

The suit was filed at the High Court civil registry at Wisma Denmark in Kuala Lumpur.

Abdul Razak wants the court to compel Linksun to make the general offer to the other shareholders of Autoways and for him to be paid damages accordingly.

Complaint lodged

Abdul Razak said that he held 754,000 shares in Autoways since 1996 and sometime in July last year, he came across newspaper reports stating that Linksun, its directors as well as MCA president and Transport minister Dr Ling Liong Sik owed another businessman Soh Chee Wen about RM150 million through transactions involving Autoways shares.

The directors of Linksun include Ling's son Ling Hee Liong, 32.

He said that he was also informed about Soh suing Ling and his son for the recovery of the monies owed.

Abdul Razak said he subsequently discovered that Linksun had bought more than six million Autoways shares at the end of 1996.

He also said that he had lodged a complaint with the SC last month but so far no action has been taken by the Commission.

He further said that he had a meeting with all other shareholders of Autoways and it was decided that he would file a suit on their behalf.