SGX reprimands Sunvic for breaking rules on 1.6b yuan of IPTs over 3 years

By

Kenneth Limkenlim@sph.com.sg@KennethLimBT

NOV 30, 20156:37 PM

THE Singapore Exchange (SGX) has reprimanded Sunvic Chemical Holdings for breaching listing rules related to 1.6 billion yuan (S$353 million) of interested-person transactions (IPTs) over the three latest financial years.

SGX said that Sunvic, a maker of intermediate chemical products, failed to make immediate announcements of and seek shareholders approval for IPTs that had been undertaken with associates of Sunvic executive director and chief executive Sun Xiao in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 financial years.

The company also failed to ensure that the IPTS were properly disclosed in the company's annual reports for the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years.

Sunvic's auditor, Foo Kon Tan grant Thornton, in April 2014 had highlighted a breach of SGX listing rules related to IPTs between Sunvic and Taixing Jinyan Chemical Technology Co, a company controlled by Mr Sun and his associates. A number of other previously undisclosed IPTs were subsequently revealed by the company.

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Although the company announced over the course of five quarterly financial reports that it planned to seek shareholders' approval for the IPTs, a shareholders' vote on those IPTs has yet to be called. In the meantime, the company has continued to enter into new IPTs.

SGX said Sunvic's directors have said that the IPTs were necessary for the business operations of the company, and stopping them abruptly would have a "material adverse impact" on the company. Sunvic's board has also expressed a view that the IPTs "did not result in any prejudice to the interests of the company and its minority shareholders", according to SGX.

Listing rules require companies to immediately announce IPTs when they account for at least 3 per cent of the company's latest audited net tangible assets. Issuers must also obtain shareholder approval for any IPTs with the interest person if the IPTs in total account for at least 5 per cent of net tangible assets.

The IPTs accounted for almost 30 per cent of Sunvic's net tangible assets in year-to-date fiscal 2015.

Sunvic shares closed unchanged at 22 Singapore cents on Monday before the reprimand was announced.

    
 

DC Frontiers launches tool to access information on owners of companies

By

Anita Gabrielanitag@sph.com.sg@AnitaGabrielBT

NOV 30, 20154:34 PM

FINANCIAL technology firm DC Frontiers, developer of the Handshakes relational data analysis app, has launched a tool for access to timely and accurate information on shareholders of companies.

The tool, developed with the support of the Singapore Association of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (SAICSA) and powered by data from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra), could be the first of such mechanism available in Singapore and Asia, said DC Frontiers.

The Handshakes application provides access in a "single click" to information on legal ownership interest of companies versus having to purchase multiple reports to extract and collate such information.

"Our application was developed to provide easy and reliable access to relationship information between persons and companies," said DC Frontiers founding director Daryl Neo, in a statement.

"This new tool enhances our product suite to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of users for conducting such searches on ownership information that traverse documents and also countries," he added.

It also supports wider efforts to promote greater transparency, said SAICSA chief executive Grace Tan.

    
 

Falling oil weighs on ringgit as Fed interest-rate rise looms

NOV 30, 20156:31 PM

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia's ringgit fell for a third day after oil prices declined and the dollar rallied before a likely increase in US borrowing costs.

A gauge of the greenback's strength rose for a fourth day as futures contracts showed a 74 per cent chance of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase next month, while the European Central Bank is seen boosting monetary stimulus. The ringgit, Asia's worst performer this year amid a 22 per cent drop in Brent crude and a political scandal involving Prime Minister Najib Razak and state investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd, advanced last week after the debt-ridden firm struck a deal to sell its power assets.

"The ringgit has weakened on the back of a stronger US dollar, with a retreat in oil prices also weighing," said Khoon Goh, a senior foreign-exchange strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd in Singapore. "There was also likely profit-taking following last week's rally in the ringgit on news of 1MDB's power asset sale." The ringgit fell 0.1 per cent to 4.2640 a dollar in Kuala Lumpur and dropped to 4.2913 earlier, the lowest since Nov 24, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. It strengthened 0.8 per cent in November, a second month of gains, paring its loss this year to 18 per cent.

1MDB said it will sell its power assets to China General Nuclear Power Corp. for 9.83 billion ringgit (S$3.2 billion), bringing it a step closer to winding down operations after its mounting debt raised investor concern. The Malaysian company, whose advisory board is headed by Prime Minister Najib, announced plans in February to dismantle its assets after it drew criticism from lawmakers for accumulating around 42 billion ringgit of debt in less than five years of existence.

Foreign funds have pulled 18.4 billion ringgit from Malaysian stocks this year, compared with 6.9 billion ringgit of outflows for the whole of 2014, according to a report Monday from Kuala Lumpur-based MIDF Amanah Investment Bank. Overseas investors have sold a net 16.2 billion ringgit of the nation's debt in 2015, central bank data show.

Government bonds advanced, pushing the yield on the notes due September 2025 down three basis points to 4.20 per cent, according to prices from Bursa Malaysia.

BLOOMBERG

      

Arrested Brazilian billionaire resigns as head of investment bank

NOV 30, 20156:56 PM

[BRASILIA] Billionaire Andre Esteves, arrested on charges related to Brazil's huge Petrobras corruption probe, has resigned as chairman and CEO of Latin America's largest independent investment bank, it said late Sunday.

BTG Pactual did not refer in the statement to Mr Esteves's legal situation, nor to the Supreme Court having agreed to a prosecutor's request to extend indefinitely the now former banker's arrest.

Mr Esteves, 47, who has a personal wealth of US$2.1 billion according to Forbes magazine, was arrested Wednesday along with Delcidio Amaral, a senior senator from the ruling Workers' Party, on charges of obstructing justice in the Petrobras probe.

The arrest of such powerful men stunned Brazil, and indicated the scope of what prosecutors say was a massive bribes and faked contracts scheme at the state oil company involving politicians and business people.

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Prosecutors say that Mr Esteves was planning to finance an escape to Spain, via Paraguay, of former Petrobras executive Nestor Cervero in exchange for Mr Cervero refusing to testify for the government.

The plan was allegedly suggested in a telephone call between Mr Amaral and Mr Cervero's son, who secretly recorded the discussion.

In the call, Mr Amaral allegedly offered to pay Mr Cervero's family U$13,000 a month in exchange for the silence.

Both Mr Esteves and Mr Amaral have denied any wrongdoing.

The Supreme Court on Sunday also ordered the indefinite arrest of senator Amaral and his chief of staff Diogo Ferreira, detained on Wednesday, as well as Cervero's attorney Edson Ribeiro, detained Friday at Rio de Janeiro airport.

The Petrobras scandal, in which executives colluded with politicians and businessmen to rob the company through bribes for rigged contracts, cost the company more than US$2 billion.

AFP

    
 

Russia will not attend Opec consultations, meeting this week

NOV 30, 201511:20 PM

[VIENNA] The Russian Energy Ministry will not send delegates for consultations or attend the Opec meeting this week as an observer, the ministry's press service told Reuters on Monday.

Instead, the ministry expects an experts-level meeting with Opec in mid-December, meaning the Russian energy minister will not attend.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will convene on Dec 4 in Vienna.

A year ago, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Russia's most influential energy official, Rosneft head Igor Sechin, attended consultations before Opec held talks.

REUTERS

    
 

BOJ's Kuroda dismisses calls to go slow in hitting inflation target

Haruhiko Kuroda, president of Asian Development Bank was part of a group of panel speakers, (moderated by deputy editor and foreign editor of the Straits Times, Warren Fernandez), that spoke on the topic of Asean Integration in the Asian Landscape at the Asean Business and Investment Summit today in Suntec Singapore today, 17 November 2007. 

PHOTO: SPH

NOV 30, 20152:52 PM

[NAGOYA] Bank of Japan's governor has dismissed calls from critics to go slow on hitting the central bank's 2 per cent inflation target and stressed the need to take "whatever steps necessary" to achieve its ambitious consumer price goal.

Various policymakers in Japan, including BOJ board members, have recently warned that pushing up prices too quickly could hurt consumption and have called for the central to give itself more time to achieve its inflation target.

However, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Monday reinforced the need to reinflate prices as a central bank priority. "If the BOJ were to move slowly toward achieving the price target, wage adjustments would also be slow," Kuroda told business leaders in the central Japan city of Nagoya, home to auto giant Toyota Motor Corp. "In order to overcome deflation - in other words, break the deadlock - somebody has to show an unwavering resolve and change the situation. When price developments are at stake, the BOJ must be the first to move." Japan relapsed into recession in July-September as slow wage growth and China's slowdown hurt consumption and exports.

Consumer prices have also kept sliding due largely to the effect of falling energy costs, keeping the BOJ under pressure to expand its massive stimulus programme to meet its pledge of accelerating inflation to 2 per cent by around early 2017.

Kuroda said the recent weakness in exports and output was unlikely to hurt companies' investment appetite for now, as robust domestic demand has made the economy resilient to external shocks.

But he warned that the slowdown in emerging markets, if prolonged, could hurt business sentiment and discourage companies from boosting capital expenditure. "We'll ease policy or take whatever steps necessary without hesitation if an early achievement of our price target becomes difficult," he told a news conference later on Monday.

The BOJ has recently joined government calls for firms to use their huge cash-pile to boost wages and investment, so far with limited success.

While the BOJ cannot directly influence wages, it can help push them up by reinforcing its commitment to achieve its price target, Kuroda said. "If Japan were to emerge from deflation and see inflation hit 2 per cent, it's important that companies start preparing for that moment by investing more on human resources and capital expenditure," he said.

He also said that while monetary policy does not directly target currency rates, the BOJ will closely monitor yen moves because of their big impact on Japan's economy. "What's most desirable is for exchange rates to move stably reflecting economic and financial fundamentals," Kuroda told business leaders.

REUTERS