TWO former senior employees of UOB Kay Hian Private Limited (UOBKH) were charged on Wednesday for allegedly lying to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in relation to reports on a then Catalist aspirant. Lan Kang Ming, 38, and Wee Toon Lee, 34, each face three charges of providing MAS with false information in October 2018 in relation to due diligence reports on an unidentified company applying to list on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. MAS said in a media statement on Wednesday that it was performing an onsite inspection of UOBKH between June and August 2018, to assess the latter's controls, policies and procedures in relation to its role as an issue manager for Initial Public Offering (IPOs). During the examination, Lan and Wee were said to have provided different versions of a due diligence report relating to background checks on a company applying to be listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. UOBKH had acted as the issue manager
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Andrea Soh
16 October 2012
Indonesian coal-mining company Geo Energy Group is heading for a Singapore Exchange (SGX) mainboard listing with an initial public offering of 289.26 million shares at 32.5 cents each.
The invitation shares comprise about 258.35 million new shares and 30.91 million vendor shares. Three million shares are public-offer shares and the remaining 286.26 million are for placement.
The group, which started business operations in 2008, previously operated coal mining sites owned by third parties, with its activities ranging from production planning and land clearing to coal excavation and sales.
With a new Indonesian mining law introduced at the end of 2009 that disallowed mine contractors from excavating and selling coal, the group acquired its own mining concession last year, and moved into providing mine contracting services such as overburden removal and coal hauling when it won its first contract in February this year.
It has so far produced about 445,000 tonnes of coal from its own mining concession, the group said.
It estimates that it will produce about 700,000 tonnes of coal for the full year, and this will be ramped up to 2.3 million tonnes next year, its chief financial officer Tan Cheang Shiong told BT.
The average calorific value of its coal is above 3,400 kcal per kg.
The 4,570 hectare concession at Kutai Barat regency in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, has 4.2 million tonnes of proven reserves and 8.3 million tonnes of probable reserves, its prospectus indicated.
Geo Energy lodged its final prospectus with the Monetary Authority of Singapore last Wednesday.
The overall take-up for the shares among institutional investors has been healthy so far, said Robert Lim, managing director of Ellis Botsworth Advisory, which is advising Geo Energy on the IPO.
Share application for retail investors closes at noon tomorrow. Trading of shares is scheduled to start on Friday.
The IPO’s joint underwriters and placement agents are Canaccord Genuity and UOB-Kay Hian.
The new shares are expected to raise about $77.8 million in net proceeds, which will be used mainly to acquire new mining equipment and machinery, and for general working capital purposes, the group said in its prospectus. Part of it will also go to acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, as well as to build a jetty and barge loading facilities five kilometres from its concession.
The group currently sells to coal traders in Indonesia, but hopes to raise its profile among international buyers through its Singapore listing.
There are also plans to set up a coal marketing arm in Singapore next year. The group already has its finance team based here.
For the year ended Dec 31, 2011, Geo Energy Group earned revenues of US$69.25 million, up US$19.19 million from the previous year.
Profit attributable to the owners of the company worked out to US$14.32 million, compared with US$11.1 million the year before.