ACT 125
COMPANIES ACT 1965 (REVISED - 1973)
PART IV - SHARES, DEBENTURES AND CHARGES
DIVISION 3A - SUBSTANTIAL SHAREHOLDINGS

 
Section 69O. Power of company to require disclosure of beneficial interest in its voting shares.
 
(1) Any company all or part of the shares in which are listed for quotation on the official list of a Stock Exchange as defined in the Securities Industry Act 1983 may by notice in writing require any member of the company within such reasonable time as is specified in the notice—

    (a) to inform it whether he holds any voting shares in the company as beneficial owner or as trustee; and

    (b) if he holds them as trustee, to indicate so far as he can the persons for whom he holds them by name and by other particulars sufficient to enable those persons to be identified and the nature of their interest.

(2) Where a company is informed in pursuance of a notice given to any person under subsection (1) or under this subsection that any other person has an interest in any of the voting shares in a company, the company may by notice in writing require that other person within such reasonable time as is specified in the notice—

    (a) to inform it whether he holds that interest as beneficial owner or as trustee; and

    (b) if he holds it as trustee, to indicate so far as he can the persons for whom he holds it by name and by other particulars sufficient to enable them to be identified and the nature of their interest.

(3) Any company to which this section applies may by notice in writing require any member of the company to inform it, within such reasonable time as is specified in the notice, whether any of the voting rights carried by any voting shares in the company held by him are the subject of an agreement or arrangement under which another person is entitled to control his exercise of those rights and, if so, to give particulars of the agreement or arrangement and the parties to it.

(4) Whenever a company receives information from a person in pursuance of a requirement imposed on him under this section with respect to shares held by a member of the company, it shall be under an obligation to inscribe against the name of that member in a separate part of the register kept by it under section 69L—

    (a) the fact that the requirement was imposed and the date on which it was imposed; and

    (b) the information received in pursuance of the requirement.

(5) Section 69L shall apply in relation to the part of the register referred to in subsection (4) as they apply in relation to the remainder of the register and as if references to subsection 69L(1) included references to subsection (4).

(6) Subject to subsection (7), any person who—

    (a) fails to comply with a notice under this section; or

    (b) in purported compliance with such a notice makes any statement which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly makes any statement which is false in a material particular,

shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

Penalty: Imprisonment for two years or one million ringgit.

(7) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under paragraph (6)(a) if he proves that the information in question was already in the possession of the company or that the requirement to give it was for any other reason frivolous or vexatious.

(8) A Stock Exchange or the Securities Commission may by notice in writing direct a company to which this section applies to invoke its powers under subsections (1) and (2) and to forthwith provide it with the information so obtained.

(9) Where a company to which this section applies fails to comply with the direction of a Stock Exchange or the Securities Commission, the company and every officer of the company who is in default shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

Penalty: One million ringgit.