Pursuant to Rule 19.9(37) of the MAIN Market Listing Requirements of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad, the Board of Directors of Apex wishes to announce that the Company’s External Auditors, Crowe Malaysia PLT had expressed the following qualified opinion in the Company’s Audited Financial Statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2023:

A. QUALIFIED OPINION

We have audited the financial statements of Apex Equity Holdings Berhad, which comprise the statements of financial position as at 31 December 2023 of the Group and of the Company, and the statements of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, statements of changes in equity and statements of cash flows of the Group and of the Company for the financial year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including material accounting policy information, as set out on pages 15 to 88.

In our opinion, except for the possible effects of the matter described in the Basis for Qualified Opinion section of our report, the accompanying financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of the Group and of the Company as at 31 December 2023, and of their financial performance and their cash flows for the financial year then ended in accordance with Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards, International Financial Reporting Standards and the requirements of the Companies Act 2016 in Malaysia.

Basis for Qualified Opinion

Included in Note 10 Receivables to the financial statements is an amount owing by a loan receivable amounting to RM23,800,000. Based on the directors’ assessment of the recoverability of this loan receivable, the directors are of the opinion that the loan receivable is recoverable and accordingly no impairment loss has been made in the financial statements. However, there are changes in circumstances subsequent to the reporting period that caused a significant deterioration in the credit quality of this loan receivable. We are unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to support the recoverability of this loan receivable. Had an adjustment for impairment of this loan receivable been made, the carrying amount of Receivables would have been decreased by the same amount for the Group. Similarly, profit after taxation for the financial year and retained profits of the Group would have decreased by the same amount.

We conducted our audit in accordance with approved standards on auditing in Malaysia and International Standards on Auditing. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditors’ Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Statements section of our report. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our qualified opinion.

Independence and Other Ethical Responsibilities

We are independent of the Group and of the Company in accordance with the By-Laws (on Professional Ethics, Conduct and Practice) of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (“By-Laws”) and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants’ International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) (“IESBA Code”), and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with the By-Laws and the IESBA Code.

Key Audit Matters

Please refer to the Pages 9 to 11 of the attached Appendix 1.

B. STEPS TAKEN OR PPRPOSED TO BE TAKEN TO ADDRESS THE KEY AUDIT MATTERS THAT RELATED TO THE QUALIFIED OPINION

The Company takes note that the qualified except for opinion issued arose from “events subsequent to the reporting period” which is disclosed in Note 37(ii) of the Annual Report (“event”).

As part of the due process after the discovery of the event, the Company has considered, amongst others, the following:

i) Information received after the event from relevant parties, which includes, loan receivable directly, its auditor, legal professionals, and other relevant sources;

ii) Quality, timeliness and reliability of the information received from the aforementioned parties listed in (i) above;

iii) Relevant MFRS standards and reliable guidance materials relevant to the event matter;

iv) Whether the conditions and circumstances of the event, irrespective of its current state, existed at the financial year end;

v) The relevant standards which state that the Company shall not adjust the amounts recognised in its financial statements to reflect non-adjusting events after the reporting period;

vi) The treatment and the extent in which hindsight information is incorporated in the assessment made at the financial year end;

vii) Historical payment trend by the loan receivable; and

viii) Whether the Company had withheld any material information from the users of its financial statements.

The Company after factoring in the response, guidance and clarification provided by its auditor, decided to take a differing position premised on all the above which, in the Company’s view, is consistent and adheres with the applicable reporting standards.

C. TIMELINE

The Company is actively monitoring the event and shall continuously assess the development of the event for any financial impact which will be reflected in the subsequent financial reports, if any.

This announcement is dated 30 April 2024.

Please refer to attachment below.