Malayan Flour, Dindings Poultry to challenge MyCC's RM70 mln penalty decision

KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Flour Mills Bhd and its joint venture company, Dindings Poultry Development Centre Sdn Bhd, are in consultation with their external legal counsel to challenge the Malaysia Competition Commission's (MyCC) decision to impose a penalty of RM70.02 million for a price-fixing infringement.

In a Bursa Malaysia filing today, the companies said that the MyCC's finding of infringement was without merit.

"Malayan Flour and Dindings Poultry will take the necessary and appropriate action to appeal the decision and apply for a stay of the decision in the interim," it said.

On Dec 22 last week, MyCC said it had imposed a penalty of nearly RM415.5 million against five poultry feed manufacturers for infringing Section 4 of the Competition Act 2010 (Act 712) by forming a price-fixing cartel for poultry feed.

"The companies were Leong Hup Feedmill (M) Sdn Bhd, FFM Bhd, Gold Coin Feedmills (M) Sdn Bhd, Dindings Poultry Development Centre Sdn Bhd and PK Agro-Industrial Products (M) Sdn Bhd," it said.

The commission said its investigation uncovered evidence of identical increments in poultry feed prices among the parties from January 2020 to June 2022, in addition to the finding that the five enterprises had employed a calculated strategy to create the illusion of rising poultry feed costs due to hikes in raw material costs.

-- BERNAMA