SINGAPORE - The Singapore Exchange (SGX) on Monday issued a public reprimand to Sunvic Chemical Holdings for breaching listing rules over interested person transactions (IPTs).
It said that the Catalist-listed company, which manufactures chemical products, had failed to make immediate announcements or to seek shareholders' approval for such transactions conducted in the financial years 2013 to 2015.
The company had also failed to ensure that the transactions were properly disclosed in its respective annual reports.
"While the company has exhibited efforts to procure shareholder approval for certain IPTs, this was not done in a timely manner. In fact, shareholder approval has not been procured to date," said SGX.
"Given the potential conflict of interest, it is for the shareholders rather than the company to judge whether the IPTs were beneficial or were not prejudicial to the interests of the company and its minority shareholders."
The group, for instance, did not obtain shareholders' approval for several transactions that involved associates of its present and former senior executives and Taixing Jinyan Chemical Technology Co during the 2013 financial year.
The transactions included short-term loans to the latter that amounted to 333 million yuan (S$ 73.64 million), the purchase of assets worth 60 million yuan, the sale of chemical products of 180 million yuan and the transfer of land use rights of 20 million yuan.
The exchange noted that the listing rules "seek to secure and maintain confidence in the market", while requiring issuers to disclose information that investors and their professional advisers would need to make an informed assessment of the securities.
"Companies' compliance with SGX's listing rules is crucial to a well-functioning market which has the confidence of market participants. As such, SGX takes very seriously listing rule breaches by listed companies."
