By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, April 21: Hudson Chua Jain, Hubline Berhad chief executive officer was the 17th witness who was called by the plaintiff for the defamation suit by Sarawak Federation of Chinese Associations president Dato Richard Wee over DAP’s Michael Kong’s Facebook post on July 21, 2020.
During the cross-examination by the defendant’s counsel Chong Chieng Jen, when asked if the plaintiff had been investigated by Bursa Malaysia, MACC or Bank Negara due to the defendant’s Facebook post, Chua said he was not aware of any action taken by those authorities, but that does not mean that no action was taken.
He said he was not aware of whether there was any cancellation or withdrawal of finance facilities from Hubline because of the defendant’s Facebook post but they would have taken the said Facebook post issue into consideration in future funding.
Chua also told the court that the net profit of Hubline Berhad in the financial year September 30, 2019 was RM1,263,633.
When asked why there was a RM10,059,971 “insurance recovery” for the year 2019, Chua explained the insurance recovery relates to insurance claim that was ascertained during the year from an accident to its barge. The claim included loss of profit as well as cost to repair the barge.
Chong asked Chua as an auditor to Hubline Berhad, was it normal for insurance recovery to go up to RM10 million, Chua said insurance claims are normal but the quantum will fluctuate depending on each claim. It is not something that can be predicted or whether it is normal or otherwise.
Referring to Hubline’s Annual Reports, Chua also disclosed that the insurance recovery of Hubline Berhad for the year 2016 it was RM671,580; for the year 2017 it was RM1,294,845; for the year 2018 it was RM3,505,561 and for the year 2020 it was RM1,732,388.
“Had it not been the income in the amount of RM10,057,971 from the insurance recovery of Hubline Berhad Group in the year 2019, Hubline Berhad Group would still be making a loss for the year 2019?” Chong asked.
Chua disagreed with the statement and said the improvement was a result of Hubline for 2019 which shows an increase in its revenue from RM101,978,735 in 2018 to RM124,459,885.
He added that the profit of the group was not solely due to insurance recovery but also due to increase in revenue and how the group was managed during that year.
The plaintiff had in total called 17 witnesses for this case and had closed their case today.
High Court Judge Haji Alwi Abdul Wahab then fixed July 4 to 5 for the defence’s case.
The defence has three witnesses.
Wee was represented by Counsel Shakar Ram, Yu Ying Ying and Russel Lim whereas Kong was represented by Counsel Chong Chieng Jen, Sim Kiat Leng and Brenda Chong. — DayakDaily
