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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By B. K. Sidhu, The Star
19 October 2013
Datuk Jared Lim and Datuk Mohamed Azlan Hashim have denied any links to tycoon Datuk Soh Chee Wen, whose name has become a topic of conversation at coffee tables and trading rooms of late.
The reason is the spectacular rise and collapse of shares in three Singapore companies recently which begs the question as to who is behind the volatile movements of the counters.
Lim and Azlan are the Malaysian shareholders in SGX listed-Asiasons Capital, one of the three companies whose share prices once recorded extraordinary gains but caused a mayhem when they plummeted beginning Oct 3. The other two companies are Blumont Group and LionGold Group.
“We are not linked to him,” Lim says in an interview with StarBizWeek.
“Look, we don’t play the market. So if they start linking us with that, whether or not him or his group, or his companies who have invested in Asiasons ... who knows? We are not aware. Clearly not in our shareholding. They are not in there, in our shareholding. However, the way articles (in other publications) have been written, it’s like these guys are one big family. That is damaging.”
Azlan adds: “Let me clarify that I don’t even know this person (Soh). I wouldn’t want to make enemies with people, and I don’t want to say that people are good or bad. I am not aware of any linkages to so-called market players. So we just mind our own business and go on managing the company.”
“There are no other shareholders ... I wouldn’t want to make an enemy and say his name per se, but there are no other substantial shareholders apart from the three of us, who own more than 5%,” Lim says.
Azlan, Lim and Ng Teck Wah hold 53% equity stake in Asiasons.
Azlan adds that “rumours and speculation is something that we don’t want to continue commenting on.”
Soh has been seen as a prominent market player in the Malaysian and Singaporean stock exchanges for more than a decade now. Soh, popularly known as John Soh, is someone who never fails to excite stock market punters and investors.
The mere mention of his name excites punters and stock market players. Every counter that he owned in Malaysia used to be sought after by punters and market players because their gains were extraordinary.
Incidentally, Azlan was the chairman of Bursa Malaysia from 1998 to 2004 at a time when Soh was being hunted by the authorities for the collapse of Omega Securities.
Soh, together with Tan Sri Tony Tiah, were subsequently found guilty of providing false information to the exchange and was fined, but that is another story by itself.
In Azlan’s first month as chairman of Bursa, the exchange had singled out Soh in its January 13 circular to broking firms, asking them to report their exposure to single client and single security, although Azlan did clarify that it included other corporate figures too.
That aside, the way the shares of the three SGX companies rose and collapsed has given rise to talk that Soh may have his fingers in these companies. This is because there are ramblings that the manner in which the shares recorded extraordinary gains and collapsed are similar to the ones that was once linked to Soh in Malaysia many years ago, though there is really no circumstantial evidence to say he is the one behind all the three SGX companies.
Soh astounded the Malaysian market with the speed with which he amassed his business empire, leading some to suggest he was merely a front man for some secretive tycoon. On several occasions, he was labelled “an asset trader,” and “stock market maverick”.
Soh started as a shampoo salesman in the 1970s and went on to build an empire of listed and non-listed companies that were into hotels and resorts, massive shipbuilding contracts and even construction.
In his heyday, he used to control more than a dozen companies including Promet Bhd, Kelanamas Industries Bhd, Uniphoenix Corp Bhd, Plantation and Development Bhd, Rekapacific Bhd, Omega Holdings, and Metro Kajang Bhd.
There is talk circulating around that Goldman Sachs and some hedge funds may have been involved in some short selling of the stocks when they were on their way down, but this could not be verified.
The companies and investors affected want to know who was behind the massive sell down that has wiped off nearly 90% of the shares’ market value. The SGX must be undertaking its own investigations and until a report comes out, there will be many theories linking many people, including Soh. Will Soh be exonerated and implicated remains to be seen.
All the allegations of Soh’s linkages come from Inno-Pacific Holdings Ltd, now known as Innopac Holdings Ltd. In late 1994, Bintang Piramid (M) Sdn Bhd bought a 19.57% equity stake in Innopac and Bintang was controlled by Soh then. He stepped down as managing director of InnoPac in 2010.
Whether he still holds the stake is not clear but reports are saying the linkages are based on a string of cross-holdings between firms said to be controlled by him and the three affected companies. Apart from the cross-holdings, some directors in the firms who are said to be aligned to Soh also have a direct interest in the three companies.
The SGX-listed companies linked to Soh are said to be Magnus Energy Group Ltd, Innopac Holdings Ltd, Ipco International Ltd and Annica Holdings Ltd.
Datuk Moehamad Izat Emir, a long time friend of Soh, is also chairman of Innopac. Tan Sri Nik Ibrahim Kamil, who is chairman of LionGold Group, was said to be Soh’s ally when Soh took on Datuk Ishak Ismail in a bid to take control of KFC Holdings Bhd some years ago.