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 Sohsandrea
11 October 2014
Aa issue over the going-concern status of forestry and pulp firm United Fiber System (UniFiber), as well as its failure to provide for default interest, led the company’s auditor to refrain from expressing an opinion on its consolidated financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2014.
The financial statements were prepared in connection with its proposed acquisition of Jakarta-listed coal miner PT Golden Energy Mines (Gems) through a reverse takeover. Similar concerns had been made for UniFiber’s financial statements ended Dec 31, 2013.
EY, the auditor, noted that the group had incurred a net loss of US$9.55 million for the financial period ended June 30, and had net current liabilities of US$121 million as at that date.
“These factors indicated the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern,” it said.
Furthermore, UniFiber also had not provided for a S$46 million default interest, and S$5 million in related charges, that it would have had to pay for breaching the debt covenant on a loan from a financial institution, if the financial institution had not on Sept 26 agreed to waive the default interest on the completion of the proposed acquisition. This was not in accordance with the requirements of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), said EY.
Because of these, the auditor chose not to express an opinion on the financial statements.
UniFiber’s directors, however, have a different view on the firm being able to settle its debt - on the assumption that the firm’s proposed acquisition of Gems would be successful.
Pointing to a planned compliance share placement of up to 226.5 million shares - to restore the firm’s public float and maintain its listing status - the US$160.4 million that will be raised will be used to settle the group’s loans and borrowings as well as for expansion and general working capital purposes, they said.
If the proposed acquisition and compliance share placement successfully go through, the firm will also issue up to US$36.7 million 5 per cent bonds due 2015, and will issue up to 2.45 billion ordinary shares at the agreed conversion price of S$0.019. These will help the firm settle the corporate guarantees it had entered into for Poh Lian Construction, its subsidiary which was put under interim judicial management on March 7 last year.
“Accordingly the directors are of the opinion that the group is able to continue as going concern, and that the financial statements have been prepared on the basis that the Group will continue as going concern,” the group said in an announcement.
The judicial management order for Poh Lian Construction has been extended until Oct 15; when granting this, the High Court had also directed that the firm file an application before Sept 15 to place itself in liquidation.
UniFiber’s proposed S$1.88 billion acquisition of a 67 per cent stake in Gems had hit a snag earlier this year, due to certain conditions of the deal not being met by the long stop date of Jan 31 this year. However, the date was subsequently extended to March 31 next year. The firm is issuing 98.92 billion new UniFiber shares, or 94.07 per cent of its enlarged share capital, to PT Dian Swastatika Sentosa (DSS), an Indonesia-listed energy and infrastructure holding company of the Sinar Mas Group to pay for the deal.
The counter was last traded at S$0.011 on Thursday.