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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Anita Gabriel
21 May 2015
Singapore Exchange’s Catalist board, now populated by more than 150 companies, could get crowded as more firms seek to transfer their listing to the “junior board” to avoid the minimum trading price (MTP) rule facing mainboard companies.
The latest company considering a transfer to Catalist - generally deemed not a favourable move in terms of wooing institutional investors who mostly have eyes for the mainboard crop - is ailing Blumont Group.
Blumont’s intention to move to Catalist, which was announced on Wednesday, follows just over a month after its fellow penny-stock company LionGold Corp said it had received a nod in principle from SGX to also transfer to Catalist.
They are not alone; Sinjia Land’s transfer from the mainboard to the sponsor-supervised Catalist regime took place on May 8. This followed three days after Joyas International Holdings made the same move.
If the wave of mainboard transfers to Catalist picks up, it could spell good times for sponsors such as PrimePartners Corporate Finance, Collins Stewart and Stamford Corporate Services, to name a few.
For now, Catalist-listed firms are not subject to the 20 Singapore cents MTP rule. But that may - or may not - change as the SGX has said that it would review whether it’s “appropriate” to extend the MTP requirement to Catalist companies, “taking into account their profile”.
SGX introduced the MTP rule for mainboard firms in March. But the MTP requirement will only be effective after a one-year transition period ending on March 1, 2016. The first batch of companies which do not comply with MTP then will enter the SGX watch-list. These companies will then have a 36-month period up to Feb 28, 2019 to comply.
Blumont and LionGold are two of three penny stocks - the other one is Asiasons Capital - which shares were hammered in late 2013 after scaling dizzying highs. The root cause of the crash is still unknown and there has been no news on the outcome of the probe by the Commercial Affairs Department.
Blumont said that the proposed transfer to Catalist would provide it with a more suitable platform for the listing and trading of its shares and better allow it to attract investors.
With that, Blumont has also scrapped its proposed share consolidation plan to meet the MTP rule.
Blumont shares finished unchanged at 1.1 Singapore cents on Wednesday while LionGold closed unchanged at 2.1 Singapore cents.
Shares of Asiasons, now known as Attilan Group since May 8, ended at 1.7 Singapore cents, down nearly 6 per cent.
A senior executive at Attilan told The Business Times that the firm has not discussed the option of seeking a transfer to Catalist.
Blumont’s move, alongside that of LionGold, should not surprise as the transfer is viewed by some as a “saving grace”.
The motivation is clear - by seeking a Catalist move, these firms get to stay listed, not get on to the dreaded watch-list or potentially having to face the ignominious risk of getting delisted should they fail to meet the MTP.
Share consolidation may not be a desirable route for these firms. “If these firms choose the MTP path of share consolidation, it would shrink liquidity. Who would want to buy and trade the stock of a loss-making firm that’s more expensive with dried-up liquidity post-consolidation?” says a market observer.