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
Comments
No end to woes as Asiasons, Blumont, LionGold are bumped off MSCI index
Goh Eng Yeow, Straits Times
30 November 2013
Asiasons Capital, LionGold Corp and Blumont Capital suffered further selling this week as they were bumped off an international stock index widely tracked by fund managers.
All three counters had been components of the MSCI Global Small Cap Index.
But on Nov 7, the index provider said it would be dropping the trio from the prestigious market benchmark.
The changes took effect after the market closed on Tuesday.
It was the latest humiliation in their fall from grace after suffering a staggering $8 billion in losses in their combined market value in just two days of sell-down last month.
For the first nine months of this year, the three counters had been the toast of traders, as their share prices shot up, drawing fund managers and retail investors to load up on their shares.
Blumont had gained as much as 11 times in value, while LionGold rose about 57 per cent and Asiasons was up by 2.5 times during the period.
But all these gains evaporated during last month’s still unexplained massive sell-off.
During the week just gone, they appeared to move in lock- step. The three counters managed to eke out small gains on Monday only to suffer a sell-off on Tuesday as investors dumped their shares to adjust for the changes to be made to the MSCI index at the end of that day.
They then struggled to recover part of their losses as the week progressed. Yesterday, LionGold ended the day 0.55 per cent lower at 18.1 cents, while Asiasons rose 1.47 per cent to 13.8 cents, and Blumont was up 1.83 per cent at 11.1 cents.
For long-suffering investors of the three counters, waiting for a lucky break to make an exit has turned out to be a hopeless task.
The latest bad news to hit the three counters is legal action taken by US-based Interactive Brokers against parties to claim the losses it had sustained, following the collapse of the trio.
These are Blumont chairman Neo Kim Hock, Ipco International boss Quah Su Ling, LionGold director of business and corporate development Peter Chen Hing Woon, JK Yiming director Tan Boon Kiat and two other people - Mr Lee Chai Huat and Mr Kuan Ah Ming.
Separately, Ms Quah and Blumont director James Hong had taken legal action against Goldman Sachs for the losses they sustained when the global bank force-sold the shares they pledged with it as loan collateral.
Interactive Brokers was earlier reported to have lost about US$68 million (S$85 million) owing to clients’ exposure to the three counters. It had purportedly taken out a court order to freeze the assets of the parties named in its legal action.
That, in turn, raises another question: Mr Neo was reported to be selling 95 million Blumont shares to Mr Alexander Molyneux as part of a broader deal to allow the former banker to buy a 5.2 per cent stake in the mining play and become its chairman.
Now that Mr Neo’s assets have been frozen, traders are wondering if Mr Molyneux will still be able to consummate the deal when the one-month extension expires next Friday.
1) Blumont was added to the MSCI Small Cap Indices in the previous review in May 2013. There is no change to the status.
2) Due to the fall in prices, Asiasons Capital and LionGold Corp. were deleted from the MSCI Small Cap but ADDED to MSCI Micro Cap in the 7 November review.
Basically, all the three stocks are still in the MSCI indices.