KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Yap Chor How, who is the son of Lay Hong Bhd executive chairman Yap Hoong Chai, has been appointed as an executive director of PanPages Bhd.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, PanPages said Yap, 40, was appointed with effect from today.

Yap is credited to have started the operations of grocery retailer G-Mart Borneo Retail Sdn Bhd in 2009, and had expanded the number of stores from an initial nine stores to 17 stores across Sabah.

Poultry company Lay Hong had announced in May its plans to sell a 30% stake in G-Mart to PanPages for RM10.75 million in an effort to tap into the retail electronic commerce business. The sale of the stake was then completed on June 20, 2017.

Chor How is also an executive director of Lay Hong, and the chief executive officer of the retail business of the company.

Hoong Chai had emerged as a substantial shareholder of PanPages, which specialises in developing business platforms, on June 22 via the Yap family vehicle Innofarm Sdn Bhd.

Via Innofarm, Hoong Chai acquired 70 million PanPages shares, representing a 26.37% stake in the company. The shares were acquired from Tan Tian Sin and Lau Kok Fui, who had both ceased to be substantial shareholders in the company on June 22.

Tan, 56, had on June 29, resigned from his post as the managing director of PanPages, to have more time for his family and himself, while Lau is a non-executive director in PanPages.

With the acquisition, Innofarm is now the largest shareholder of PanPages.

PanPages shares closed unchanged at 29.5 sen today, for a market capitalisation of RM79.65 million.