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Keppel Corporation's offshore and marine unit has reached a global resolution with criminal authorities in the United States, Brazil and Singapore in relation to corrupt payments made by a former agent in Brazil. The resolution, involving three jurisdictions across the world, is unprecedented for a Singapore company. As part of the resolution, Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) will pay fines amounting to US$422.2 million (S$570 million), to be allocated between the US, Brazil, and Singapore, the Singapore-listed conglomerate said in a statement early Saturday (Dec 23). The corrupt payments relate to those made by Mr Zwi Skornicki on several Keppel O&M projects in Brazil, which were carried out with the knowledge or approval of former Keppel O&M executives. Of the US$422.2 million in fines, Keppel O&M will pay about US$105.6 million to the US, including a US$4.7 million criminal fine by Keppel O&M USA. Brazil will receive US$211.1 mil...

ISR Capital has announced that due to a change in its issued share capital, the total consideration for its deal with REO Magnetic will be lowered to S$2.99 million from S$4.52 million. In a filing with the Singapore Exchange (SGX), ISR said that the consideration price per share for the deal with REO - which would see ISR take an aggregate stake of 60 per cent in Mauritian company Tantalum Holding - would be adjusted to 0.4 Singapore cent from the initial price of 0.67 Singapore cent, and the number of consideration shares would be adjusted to 747.26 million shares. This was after a conversion of S$1 million of convertible bonds into 250 million conversion shares on Dec 6. Tantalum Holding owns 100 per cent of Tantalum Rare Earth Malagasy, which has a permit to explore and develop a concession hosting critical rare earth elements in Madagascar. Under amended terms of the Tantalum acquisition, ISR was to issue 674.78 million of its own shares to REO Magnetic at 0.67 Si...

Chinese shipping firm Cosco Shipping International (Singapore) has hit the 90 per cent compulsory acquisition mark for its $1.02-a-share cash offer for Cogent Holdings. As at 5pm on Thursday, Cosco had received valid acceptances representing around 5.68 per cent of the total number of Cogent shares, the company said. Cosco had previously received irrevocable undertakings by four Cogent shareholders, who collectively hold 84.33 per cent of the total number of Cogent's shares. Since this brings Cosco's total holdings to 90.01 per cent, Cosco said that it will pursue a delisting of Cogent from the Singapore Exchange. The four undertaking shareholders are Cogent's executive chairman Tan Yeow Khoon, his wife Ng Poh Choo, managing director Tan Yeow Lam, and executive director and chief executive Benson Tan Min Cheow, all of whom had agreed to accept the offer on or before Jan 3 next year. Cosco's offer price represents some 31/2 times Cogent's net tan...

ISR Capital has announced that due to a change in its issued share capital, the total consideration for its deal with REO Magnetic will be lowered to S$2.99 million from S$4.52 million. In a filing with the Singapore Exchange (SGX), ISR said that the consideration price per share for the deal with REO - which would see ISR take an aggregate stake of 60 per cent in Mauritian company Tantalum Holding - would be adjusted to 0.4 Singapore cent from the initial price of 0.67 Singapore cent, and the number of consideration shares would be adjusted to 747.26 million shares. This was after a conversion of S$1 million of convertible bonds into 250 million conversion shares on Dec 6. Tantalum Holding owns 100 per cent of Tantalum Rare Earth Malagasy, which has a permit to explore and develop a concession hosting critical rare earth elements in Madagascar. Under amended terms of the Tantalum acquisition, ISR was to issue 674.78 million of its own shares to REO Magnetic at 0.67 Si...

Chinese shipping company Cosco Shipping International (Singapore) has hit the 90 per cent compulsory acquisition mark for its S$1.02-a-share cash offer for Cogent Holdings. As at 5pm on Dec 21, Cosco has received valid acceptances representing around 5.68 per cent of the total number of Cogent shares, the company said. Cosco had previously received irrevocable undertakings by four Cogent shareholders, who collectively hold 84.33 per cent of the total number of Cogent's shares. Since this brings Cosco's total holdings to 90.01 per cent, Cosco said that it will pursue a delisting of Cogent from the Singapore Exchange. The four undertaking shareholders are Cogent's executive chairman Tan Yeow Khoon, his wife Ng Poh Choo, managing director Tan Yeow Lam, and executive director and chief executive Benson Tan Min Cheow, with all four agreeing to accept the offer on or before Jan 3, 2018. Cosco's offer price represents some 3 1/2 times Cogent's net tang...

NRA Capital founder Kevin Scully will resign from his firm after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) slapped him with a three-year ban on financial advisory work in the wake of investigations into 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). Mr Scully, a veteran of the Singapore financial market who founded his boutique outfit in 1999, told The Business Times that he will relinquish his duties from NRA and resign from his post following the PO (prohibition order), and that "the staff will take over the business if they want to". Sen Yue Holdings, a company at which Mr Scully is lead independent director, also announced on Tuesday that its nominating committee is reviewing the matter and will make recommendations in due course on Mr Scully's directorship. In a statement on Tuesday, the MAS said that it had issued a prohibition order against Mr Scully restricting him from providing any financial advisory services; and taking part in the management of, acting as a di...

IF billionaire Peter Lim had wanted to realise the fullest value for the Thomson Medical healthcare group, an initial public offering (IPO) would have been the cleanest way to structure a deal. By choosing instead to inject these healthcare assets into Rowsley, the listed firm which he also controls, Mr Lim seems to be making an effort to reverse the fortunes of the loss-making company with interests in a mishmash of businesses including real estate, design consultancy and hotel management. On Monday, Rowsley inked a deal to acquire the Thomson Medical's businesses from Mr Lim for S$1.6 billion, to be paid mostly in stock. An IPO was certainly something Thomson had considered. In September last year, Roy Quek, executive chairman of Thomson Medical and chief executive of TMC Life Sciences, told The Business Times that the group was gunning for an initial public offering. He told BT then: "If we were to do a listing now, we'd probably have a market capitalisation of...

Many in the industry have cried foul that SGX is compromising itself by holding the dual roles of regulator and of running the exchange as a profit making organization. The conflict of interests is so glaring that only when one is behaving like gods and infallibles that one would think otherwise. In this exceptional island, SGX is not the only place where conflict of interests were ignored as irrelevant and inapplicable. And this sad state of affair is going to continue unquestioned and unchallenged for as long as your life time if things did not change, if the political status quo remains as it is. The underlying assumption is that this exceptional island is so blessed with very exceptional human beans that have impeccable integrity, honesty and are so honourable that you can believe they would not compromise themselves even if they assumed the roles of judge, jury and executioner. They cannot be compromised or are incorruptible! So to be the regulator to police any wrong doings ...