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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...

SINGAPORE (Jan 3): John Soh Chee Wen, the alleged mastermind behind the 2013 penny stock crash, had threatened to “run down the integrity” of witnesses, former abettor-turned-prosecution witness Ken Tai Chee Ming told the court on Friday. Under cross-examination by Soh’s defence counsel N Sreenivasan of K&L Straits Law, Tai disclosed that he did not reveal the involvement of Dick Gwee in the market manipulation to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) until 2017 because he wanted to be “fair to John, [Quah] Su-Ling and Dick”. “I initially covered for him because he is old and if he goes in [to prison] again [he will get] a longer sentence,” explained Tai. Tai also repeated his testimony from the last tranche of trial that he was initially willing to take the rap for Soh, but decided against it once Soh “pushed the blame” to him. According to Tai, Soh had also told him that in court, it would be “word against word” and “witness against witness” and that Soh would...

SINGAPORE (Jan 2): Returning to the stand for the third tranche of the trial of alleged 2013 penny stock crash masterminds John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling, prosecution witness Ken Tai Chee Ming on Thursday again admitted to cheating the duo and making millions of dollars for himself. Once part of Soh’s “inner circle” of brokers and remisiers, Tai had already admitted to manipulation of the stock market for his own gain in the second tranche of the trial in October last year. However, Tai later claimed he only confessed to make Soh’s lawyer “happy” after a protracted and frustrating back-and-forth questioning. Tai’s cross-examination has been put on hold until this third tranche so the defence counsels had time to go through some data. In his cross-examination on Thursday, Soh’s defence counsel, N Sreenivasan of K&L Straits Law, put forth that Tai had lied at several instances. “You are guilty of market manipulation, misappropriation and cheating your accoun...

MAGNUS Energy Group will convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Jan 9, 2020 after coming to an agreement with requisitioning shareholders that had initially proposed to hold their own EGM. Catalist-listed Magnus previously proposed to hold the EGM between Jan 17 and 21, while the requisitioning shareholders had proposed Jan 13 instead. The shareholders are Ong Chin Yew, Sng Lee Leng and two companies Blue Water Engineering and Idola Cakrawala International. To save costs, Magnus will hold the EGM to consider and approve its own resolutions and those proposed by the shareholders, it said on Wednesday night in its lawyers' response to the shareholders' solicitors' letter. The costs of any additional EGM held by shareholders would be paid by the company under Section 176 of the Companies Act. We’ll be curating stories from management guru John Bittleston and making them free to read. Magnus had expressed concerns regarding the seven resolut...

SINGAPORE Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) is seeking to revise the listing rules for more powers to deal with potential misconduct and to protect shareholder interest, especially in the area of interested person transactions (IPTs). Chief executive officer of the frontline market regulator, Tan Boon Gin, told The Business Times that the objective is to ultimately "secure faster enforcement outcomes and provide clarity to the market". Enforcement actions are important both to punish and to deter bad behaviour. "We have been formulating a plan to overhaul our enforcement policy, framework and actions. This is targeted to be presented and consulted on next year," he shared. "The changes will include the structure and terms of reference of the Listings Disciplinary Committee (LDC) and the Listings Appeals Committee (LApC). We will also address the impact on minority shareholders when companies are fined." Mr Tan, who has been helming SGX RegCo...

IT'S not often that the Singapore Exchange reverses a rule it deemed necessary just a few years back. On Thursday, Singapore's frontline market regulator conceded that the minimum trading price (MTP) rule for mainboard-listed companies should be scrapped. Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGXRegco) chief Tan Boon Gin did not consider the MTP a mistake, but he acknowledged market feedback that had highlighted its shortcomings. He said the MTP has been a "blunt tool" that created various "unintended consequences" for issuers and shareholders. Indeed, it is hard to see how the MTP rule - introduced in the wake of the October 2013 penny stock crash that wiped out billions of paper gains from Asiasons, Blumont and LionGold - has fulfilled its intended purpose of improving the quality of mainboard listings. Specifically, the thinking by SGX five years ago was that penny stocks are more prone to manipulation by syndicates, whereas "higher-priced...