MALAYAN Flour Mills Bhd and its joint venture company Dindings Poultry Development Centre Sdn Bhd were in consultation with their external legal counsel to challenge the Malaysia Competition Commission’s (MyCC) penalty of RM70.02 million for a price-fixing infringement.

In a Bursa Malaysia filing today, the companies said 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 December 22, MyCC imposed a penalty of nearly RM415.5 million on five poultry feed manufacturers for infringing section 4 of the Competition Act 2010 by forming a price-fixing cartel.

“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 firms from January 2020 to June 2022, in addition to a finding that the five enterprises employed a calculated strategy to create the illusion of rising poultry feed costs due to raw material cost hikes. – Bernama, December 26, 2023.