Dasin Retail Trust suspends trading on financial reporting challenges
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Dasin Retail Trust's trustee-manager said it will make further announcements if there are material developments that warrant disclosure.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO.
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SINGAPORE - Trading in the units of Dasin Retail Trust has been suspended on the Singapore Exchange.
This comes as the business trust is unable to comply with listing rules that require the timely release of financial results and the holding of annual general meetings (AGMs), said the trustee-manager in a bourse filing on July 21.
Under the rules, an issuer is required to announce its full-year and quarterly financial results as soon as the data is ready, and to hold its AGMs within four months after the end of its financial year.
However, since the third quarter of 2023, the management team of Dasin Retail Trust’s China units has stopped providing key financial documents, such as accounting schedules, balances and transactions with related parties.
These documents are required to prepare the group’s annual financial statements for financial years 2023 and 2024, and the quarterly results for financial year 2024 and financial year 2025.
“The personnel in charge of the rent-rolls of the retail malls of the trust have refused to provide such information for the purpose of conducting the valuation of the investment properties which are the most significant assets in the group’s statements of financial position as at Dec 31, 2023, and 2024,” said the trustee-manager.
As a result, the trust has not published audited financial statements and held AGMs since the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021.
The trust also warned that its assets are at “significant risk” and are “subject to significant impairment” due to a series of developments involving its China subsidiaries. These include suspicious fund transfers, unauthorised lease agreements, diverted rental income and breaches of loan agreements.
Moreover, a moratorium granted by the High Court of Singapore expired on July 13.
According to a Jan 14 bourse filing, Dasin Retail Trust was granted a six-month moratorium, during which no resolution could be passed for the winding-up of the company, and no legal proceedings could be commenced or continued against it without court approval.
Additionally, no receiver or manager could be appointed over any property or the trustee-manager itself.
The moratorium also prevented enforcement orders or legal processes against the trust, including actions to repossess assets or enforce lease violations, unless permitted by the court.
The trustee-manager was also directed to provide valuation reports on the trust’s malls, information on any acquisition, disposal or security grant over the trustee-manager’s property, as well as quarterly updates on company-level financial statements.
“Under the current circumstances, the trustee-manager may not have sufficient information to allow unit holders to properly assess the trust’s financial position for the purpose of trading in the units,” said the trustee-manager.
It will make further announcements if there are material developments that warrant disclosure.
Units of Dasin Retail Trust closed flat at two cents on July 21, after the announcement.
