SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Catalist-listed Axington said on Wednesday night (Sept 9) that it will allow shareholders who have applied for, accepted and/or paid for its rights shares or excess rights shares to withdraw their acceptances if they wish to do so.
This is in view of the voluntary suspension of Axington shares since Aug 31, pending the release of an announcement related to strategic changes to the company's business direction, the company said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange.
Acceptances, applications and/or payment made by entitled shareholders for the rights shares or excess rights shares during and prior to the suspension can be withdrawn. To do so, shareholders must provide written instructions with their authorised signatories to the Central Depository and/or the Share Registrar on behalf of the company, during the period up to the new closing date for the rights issue.
Axington advised shareholders to look out for an announcement that it will make on the revised expected timetable for key events of its rights issue.
The two-member board of Axington had announced on Sunday that it will extend the rights offer period, without giving a new deadline, as it awaited "further clarity" from the company's controlling shareholders, cousins Nelson Loh and Terence Loh.
The Lohs and business partner Evangeline Shen are co-founders of Singapore-registered Bellagraph Nova (BN) Group, which grabbed the headlines last month by announcing a bid for English Premier League football club Newcastle United. But the BN Group quickly became mired in controversy due to revelations ranging from doctored Obama images to inconsistencies in claims and retracted press statements.
Ms Shen resigned last week as Axington's chairman, along with three other directors, a week after former US ambassador to Singapore Kirk Wagar quit from the board.
The firm earlier postponed an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) that was to have been held on Aug 27 to, among others, approve a name change from Axington to NETX and a change in its core business.
Axington in Wednesday's filing also informed shareholders that the PayNow QR (Quick Response) code printed on the application and acceptance forms despatched on or around Aug 26 would have become ineffective after 9.30pm on Sept 9. This was the original deadline for acceptance and payment for the rights shares and excess rights shares.
It will generate a new PayNow QR code when the new closing date has been fixed, and send it out in the new forms to be despatched in due course.
There were at least 200 public shareholders of Axington as at Aug 18. They held an aggregate of 42.1 million shares, representing about 22.12 per cent of the company's total issued stock.
With additional information from The Straits Times
