XOX mulls fund-raising

PETALING JAYA (Dec 27, 2012): XOX Bhd, which was issued with an unusual market activity (UMA) query by Bursa Malaysia on Monday, is finalising the terms for a possible fund-raising exercise for working capital requirements.

"The board has held a preliminary discussion with certain potential parties on proposed debt settlement, of which details have not been finalised, and is yet to be approved by the board," the ACE Market-listed mobile virtual network operator said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

"The appointment of advisers for such a proposal has also not been finalised at this juncture," it added.

On Monday, Bursa Securities had issued an UMA query on the sharp rise in price and volume of XOX's shares recently.

"The board of directors wish to informed that after making due enquiry with Soo Pow Min -- an independent non-executive director of the company, he had confirmed that to the best of his knowledge (that) he is not aware of any corporate development or rumour that may have contributed to the UMA," said loss-making XOX yesterday.

XOX shares gained 16% to 18.5 sen on Dec 20 2012 following a report that it could be a takeover target for tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary. Syed Mokhtar's Puncak Semangat Technology Sdn Bhd was recently awarded the largest block of 40MHz of the 2600MHz spectrum by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, which allows it to provide 4G services with speeds in excess of 100Mbps.

In reply, XOX had said it had not received any takeover notice from Syed Mokhtar and was not aware of any potential takeover offer from the latter as reported.

The stock was one of the top active counters yesterday, closing up 2% at 22 sen, with 10.6 million shares traded.