KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 24): Businessman Tan Sri Halim Saad has ceased to be a substantial shareholder of Sumatec Resources Bhd, after disposing of 197.3 million shares in the Practice Note 17 company for RM1.1 million.

Sumatec's filing with Bursa Malaysia today showed that Halim sold the block of shares via the open market on Jan 22. This leaves Halim with a 3.168% stake in the group following the disposal.

Halim, once Sumatec's largest shareholder, has been paring down his stake in the group since last year.

For the cumulative nine months ended Sept 30, 2018 (9MFY18), Sumatec posted a net loss of RM1.91 million compared with a net profit of RM1.88 million a year ago. Revenue fell 75.5% to RM2.99 million from RM12.19 million in 9MFY17.

On April 30, 2018, Sumatec announced that its external auditors Messrs Grant Thornton Malaysia had expressed a disclaimer of opinion on the group's audited financial statements for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 (FY17).

The auditors were unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence on the appropriateness of its going concern assumption.

Grant Thornton had highlighted that the group and the company had incurred a net loss of RM113.95 million and RM171.06 million respectively in FY17. The group and the company also recorded negative cash flows of RM15.33 million and RM9.86 million respectively on operating activities for FY17.

Sumatec shares ended the morning session down 0.5 sen or 50% to 0.5 sen today, with 1.86 million shares done, bringing a market capitalisation of RM21.26 million.