SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Strife-hit ecoWise Holdings could not proceed with an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Friday (Aug 13) to vote on the removal of its deputy chief executive, after the High Court granted an interim injunction of the meeting a day earlier.
The injunction application was brought before the court by deputy CEO Cao Shixuan, who is also an executive director at ecoWise, the Catalist company said in a bourse filing late on Thursday - a day before the proposed EGM was to be held.
Mr Cao, through his lawyers at CNPLaw, had served a writ of summons on the company's founder and CEO Lee Thiam Seng, and shareholders Tan Wee Boon and Winston Tan Jin Beng. The latter two had called for the EGM to remove Mr Cao and to appoint three new directors - Mr Damien Seah, Mr Nichol Yeo and Mr Calvin Tan.
ecoWise had said on Aug 6 that any resolutions passed at the proposed EGM would be deemed invalid as valid notice had not been given for the meeting.
In his writ of summons, Mr Cao is claiming that the three defendants had conducted the company's affairs and exercised powers of its directors in a manner that was "oppressive", and that disregarded his interest as a director and member of the company.
Mr Cao has also claimed that holding the EGM on Aug 13 "unfairly discriminates against the plaintiff", said ecoWise's announcement, which was signed off by lead independent director Er Kwong Wah.
The same writ of summons was served on ecoWise as a "nominee defendant", but Mr Cao is not seeking any remedies against the company.
The order will stand until the matter proceeds to trial, or when the court makes a further order.
The shareholders who called for the meeting told The Business Times last month that they had notified ecoWise of the EGM on July 16 and had provided the company with a notice of EGM and a proxy form for the intended meeting.
They said they had asked ecoWise to release the notice and proxy form in a bourse announcement and on the company's website, but it had not done so.
ecoWise shares have been suspended from trading since June 18. They last traded at 7.8 cents.
