Rafidah resigns as Supermax chairman after MD's apology to PM

PETALING JAYA: Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz has resigned as Supermax Corp Bhd chairman after managing director Datuk Seri Stanley Thai, who is currently appealing against his five-year sentence for insider trading, issued an apology to the Prime Minister for his involvement in politics last Saturday.
Rafidah, 74, who was appointed non-independent, non-executive chairman of Supermax in June 2015, cited “personal reasons” for her departure.
In a statement to Bursa Malaysia Securities today, Supermax said the resignation of Rafidah does not affect the day-to-day business operations or the performance of the group.
Thai said at a press conference last Saturday that he was influenced by propaganda and the Opposition during the 13th general election (GE13) and regretted getting involved in politics as a businessman, stressing that he was no longer involved in any political activities.
Recall that in 2013, Thai was quoted in a Bloomberg report saying that he would join Malaysian Chinese in abandoning support for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and vote for the Opposition in GE13.
Late last year, Thai was sentenced by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court to a five-year jail term and fined RM5 million for insider trading offences committed when he was CEO of now-delisted APL Industries Bhd.
Thai was convicted for communicating non-public information between Oct 26, 2007 and Oct 29, 2007 to former remisier Tiong Kiong Choon. Tiong was convicted of two counts of disposing of a total of 6.2 million APLI shares while in possession of the same non-public information via accounts belonging to his mother-in-law and his mother.
It was the first insider trading conviction where both the tipper (the person who communicated the inside information), Thai, and the tippee, Tiong, were charged and convicted for the offence.
On Bursa Malaysia today, Supermax soared 8 sen or 3.1% to RM2.68 on volume of 5.44 million shares.