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Five former remisiers from various brokerages were charged in the State Courts on Thursday morning for false trading. The charges involved as many as 55 securities listed on the mainboard and Catalist of the Singapore Exchange.  The investigation was jointly conducted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force. The five charged are Alan Lee, Chew Wei Zhan, Lee Wei Kai, Lim Ming Yi and Lim Ming Chit, in relation to violations of Section 197 of the Securities and Futures Act. All face charges for conspiring to create a false appearance in the trading of shares to support or raise the share price by executing a series of transactions relating to the stocks.  There were 80 charges brought against Alan Lee, a former remisier with OCBC Securities, for false trading in 55 securities on 80 occasions. Chew, who was from DBS Vickers Securities, faces 79 charges for false trading in 53 securities on 79 occasions. ...

SINGAPORE (July 9): John Soh, who is at the centre of a trial for allegedly manipulating three penny stocks in 2013 that subsequently led to their crash, made a couple of attempts to stage a “comeback” from losses incurred in the wake of their spectacular collapse. According to former broker Gabriel Gan Tze Wee, who helped to carry out some of Soh’s trade orders, the latter tried to convince people around him that he had a “comeback story” and that they could all make a “solid” comeback. Gan, who is taking the stand as the latest prosecution witness, told the court that the term “comeback” was “over-abused” by Soh three to four years after the crash. The court also heard that a couple of “comeback” attempts were also made with two other listed companies, Sino Construction (since then renamed MMP Resources) and ISR Capital (now called Reenova Investment Holding) as well as a privately-held company called Greatronics. However, before the schemes could gain traction and make enough ...

SINGAPORE (July 9): Sreenivasan attempted to get Gan to agree that his client did not have that much control over the manipulation of BAL shares as painted out to be. According to earlier testimonies given by prosecution witnesses, including Gan, Soh in September 2013 before the crash, had urged attendees at a presentation held at LionGold’s office to buy the three stocks. Those present at the event included Quah, Gwee, Tai and Wong Xue Yu. “If John was controlling the accounts under these people, do you agree there was no reason for him to promote the company to them? He just has to give them instructions to go and buy, right?” asked Sreenivasan. Gan disagreed, saying Soh meant to encourage them to buy. “They could take up the encouragement or they could not take up the encouragement?” asked Sreenivasan. “Of course, definitely,” replied Gan. “These people who were there being encouraged to buy were people who could make decisions on their own, right?” asked Sreenivasan. “Yes,” s...

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 issu...

BIOLIDICS shares sank 22 per cent on Monday after the Catalist-listed firm announced on Sunday that it had mutually agreed with Aytu BioScience to terminate a distribution agreement for its Covid-19 antibody test kits in the US, amid increased competition for such kits. Shares of Biolidics, which ended Friday at 41 Singapore cents, plunged to 29.5 cents as at 8.58am on Monday. The stock recovered to 35 cents as at 9.26am, before closing at 32 cents, down nine cents. Earlier in April, Biolidics signed a one-year agreement with Aytu for the distribution of its test kits in the US after completing its US FDA listing. With the distribution deal scrapped, Biolidics will need to refund Aytu in full for all deposits paid with respect to undelivered orders of its test kits. The Catalist-listed company also intends to apply to voluntarily withdraw its application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) pursuant to the FDA's serology test po...

APPLE'S move to drop semiconductor giant Intel Corporation's chips for future Macs is unlikely to put a dent on AEM Holdings' business.   The firm may in fact see some upside given that Intel "will be able to dedicate more focus on its data-centric business" once it discontinues supplying chips to Apple, DBS analyst Ling Lee Keng told The Business Times.   "Its data-centric business has been growing, and is expected to grow at a faster rate than its PC-centric business, which will positively impact AEM as it is involved in the testing of its logic chips," she said.   Although not disclosed by AEM, most reports suggest that the firm's key customer is Intel, which contributes over 90 per cent of its revenue.   Intel had recorded a revenue of US$72 billion for FY2019, up 1.7 per cent from a year ago led by growth in its data centre business.   Ms Ling also pointed out that Mac chips sold to Apple accounts for only around 4.7 per cent of its re...

IN CONTINUED consolidation within the stockbroking industry, Phillip Securities is buying RHB Investment Bank Berhad's (RHBIB) Singapore stockbroking business in RHB Securities Singapore (RHBSS) for an undisclosed sum. The consideration will be calculated "based on the net tangible assets of RHB Securities Singapore", RHB Bank said in a filing to the Bursa Malaysia stock exchange. RHBIB is a wholly-owned unit of RHB Banking Group in Malaysia, while RHBSS is wholly owned by RHBIB. Both sides have signed a conditional share purchase agreement. In its rationale, RHB Bank said: "The increasingly competitive broking environment has made it no longer viable for RHB Securities Singapore to continue its stockbroking business." Financial statements obtained by The Business Times showed that RHBSS was bleeding losses after tax of S$8.05 million for its FY19 ended Dec 31, 2019, albeit an improvement from losses of S$16.06 million in FY18 and S$13.95 million in FY17...

MAGNUS Energy Group disclosed that two of its directors stepped down just half a year after winning a boardroom tussle because they disagreed with the chief executive officer (CEO) on certain payments, office rental, staff costs, and the shutdown of a plant. Anthony Kuek resigned as non-executive chairman and independent non-executive director on June 24. This was due to “irreconcilable differences” with executive director and CEO Charles Madhavan over, among other things, the entry of certain interested person transactions (IPTs) during the quarter ended March 31, as well as sustainability concerns relating to the company’s finances, Magnus said on Wednesday. Likewise, Ong Chin Yew quit on June 14 as a non-independent non-executive director, due to “differences of opinion” with Mr Madhavan. In a bourse filing late on Thursday, the Catalist-listed firm said that Mr Kuek disagreed over three payments: a service agreement between Blue Water Engineering Pte Ltd (BWEPL) and Magnus; a one-t...

Issuer of daily leveraged certs used what some say is an aggressive formula to calculate the price of SIA shares ex-rights TRADERS in the 5x Short Singapore Airlines (SIA) daily leverage certificates (DLCs) saw their positions go to zero on Wednesday when SIA shares rose more than 20 per cent upon trading ex-rights. The short squeeze was exacerbated after Societe Generale (SocGen), the issuer of the certificates, used what some traders said is an aggressive formula to calculate the price of SIA shares ex-rights. SocGen also gave them very little time to hedge their bets in reaction, the traders said. The full damage is not known but in the week ended May 1, over 1.8 million short DLCs worth S$1.4 million were in the hands of investors. DLCs are instruments that move either up or down based on the price of an underlying asset. A 5x Short DLC will move inversely to the underlying asset price by a factor of five, so a 20 per cent increase in SIA's share price would p...

CIMB Singapore has raised the ire of customers with its move to raise the floor of certain mortgages pegged to the one-month Singapore interbank offered rate (Sibor) - with that floor rate now higher than the prevailing market rate. From May 18, customers on CIMB's floating-rate mortgages linked to the Sibor or Swap Offer Rate (Sor) must stomach being charged a minimum of 0.9 per cent, compared to the previous floor rate of 0.1 per cent, a notification letter seen by The Business Times showed. Disgruntled customers told BT that they consider the move "highly unethical" and intend to challenge the bank on the decision. CIMB is believed to be the first bank to increase its floor rate for such floating-rate mortgages amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with most banks keeping the floor rate of about zero. Floor rates are understood to protect lenders from losses, and introduced as a clause in loan contracts in the case of a collapse in rates. For example, in 2011, the Sor ...

PRESSED for time as it grapples with a debt pile of US$4 billion, Singapore's giant oil trader Hin Leong Trading (HLT) has pulled out its application to the court for a debt moratorium and decided instead to go down the judicial management path, according to sources. The Business Times understands that PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) LLP, the accounting firm that was hired by the trader to help fix its dire financials and "protect and preserve its assets and cash", will be appointed as interim judicial manager. The move has surprised some market watchers. "It puzzles me. There are very good reasons to stick to section 211B (of the Companies Act that involves a moratorium order)," said Robson Lee, a Singapore-based partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. "JM (judicial management) is a blunt instrument that works in limited situations. The hard truth is that JM is value destructive since management - with its know-how, connections and technical exp...

SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - The letters started to arrive in early April. One after the other, the titans of global finance, from JPMorgan Chase & Co to HSBC Holdings, demanded the immediate and urgent repayment of hundreds of millions of dollars in loans. On the receiving end was Hin Leong, one of the most powerful and secretive names in oil trading. Founded in 1963 by a Chinese immigrant known to everyone in the industry as O.K. Lim, it was a giant in the world of shipping fuel from its base in Singapore. Over the decades it had become one of the most fabled trading houses, the source of a billion-dollar fortune, and the subject of stories about legendary deals that made rivals sweat. But earlier this month, as oil prices collapsed in the fallout from the coronavirus, its foundations crumbled. Banks had already been pulling credit lines, spooked by defaults at other trading houses. Smelling something wrong at Hin Leong, they started to ask for their money. When it faile...

Four men are facing charges of illegal trading that involved cheating two banks into disbursing more than $2.2 million to buy shares. Goh Hanshi Justin, who allegedly masterminded the scheme that manipulated the price of Sky One Holdings shares, was charged on Thursday (March 26) alongside three others. Goh was a retail investor, while the three men - who were not named - were trading representatives at Lim & Tan Securities and RHB Securities Singapore, formerly known as DMG & Partners Securities. Goh, 34, allegedly controlled the trades in Skyone shares through 27 different trading accounts that belonged to third parties from Sept 18 to Oct 28, 2013. The three trading representatives obtained 15 of the accounts for him. Police said that in order to secure a higher trade limit in Skyone shares, Goh nominated three other people to receive Skyone shares and used the stock as collateral with The Bank of East Asia and Maybank under their share-financing facili...

ON Jan 9, Magnus Energy, a company whose shares have been suspended from trading since Aug 23, 2019, got an opportunity for a reboot after minority shareholders voted in a new board. For many Magnus shareholders, this could not have been a better outcome. There have been cases where companies became insolvent and shareholders were trapped in limbo. Had it not been for Charles Madhavan, who had a brief but critical two-month stint as the company's managing director before he was terminated, no one would have been privy to the extent of the shenanigans that contributed to many people losing their investments. In its heyday, Magnus was trading close to S$4 a share in early 2013. That was before the massive fund-raising activities the company undertook from FY2015 to FY2018. In total, Magnus raised gross proceeds of S$31.3 million, and had used close to S$20 million. As a result of a notes issue exercise and share placement, the company issued a significant number of new ...

It's looking into possible breaches of the Catalist rules after Magnus' sale of interest in firm THE Singapore Exchange's regulatory arm (SGX RegCo) on Friday notified Catalist-listed Magnus Energy Group to put on hold all corporate transactions until its board is fully reconstituted, and said it would investigate a disposal by the firm for possible breaches of the Catalist rules. Magnus Energy is set to convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Jan 9 as two teams seek shareholders' support for boardroom control of the troubled oil and gas firm. In a Dec 31 update, the firm said that "all planned actions are expected to be taken only after the EGM". But it was brought to the attention of SGX RegCo that the company had sold its 50 per cent indirect interest in Mid-continent Environmental Protection to the latter's existing director, Chong Yen Yee, for RM1 (33 Singapore cents). As the disposal involved negative relative figures unde...