DNeX executive director Zainal ‘Abidin resigns

March 3, 2023

KUALA LUMPUR (March 2): After serving as executive director of Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) for over two years, Zainal ‘Abidin Abd Jalil has resigned from the post effective Thursday (March 2).

Zainal ‘Abidin is leaving the post he held since Dec 1, 2020, “due to personal commitment”, according to the group’s filing on Thursday.

Prior to holding the post of executive director, Zainal ‘Abidin had also served as the group’s managing director from June 19, 2014, till Jan 21, 2019.

The Edge Weekly reported in its Feb 27-March 5, 2023 issue that according to a source familiar with the group, Zainal ‘Abidin is interested in taking over the group’s 90% stake in upstream oil and gas (O&G) company Ping Petroleum Ltd.

It reported that the potential move came as DNeX works towards demerging its businesses to turn into a pure semiconductor player. DNeX currently operates under three divisions, namely technology, energy and information technology.

Zainal, an O&G industry veteran equipped with 28 years at ExxonMobil, sat on Ping’s board as managing director. The subsidiary leads the group’s upstream O&G activities in its energy division.

According to its 2022 annual report, Zainal had an indirect interest of 0.07% or 2.14 million shares as at Sept 28, 2022, via his wife Rusmin Jaafar.

Previously, Zainal was a substantial shareholder in DNeX via the group’s largest shareholder Arcadia Acres Sdn Bhd.

However, this status ceased on March 18 last year after he transferred his shareholding in Arcadia Acres Sdn Bhd to Annedjma Capital Bhd. Arcadia Acres is DNeX’s largest shareholder with 359 million shares or an 11.37% stake.

Shares in DNeX ended down half a sen or 0.83% at 60 sen, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM1.88 billion.