SINGAPORE - The following companies saw new developments which may affect trading of their shares on Thursday (April 5):
Vard Holdings: The Singapore Exchange has no objection to the delisting of yard group Vard Holdings provided this is approved by the group's shareholders, the listed group said before Thursday's market open. Vard's majority shareholder, Fincantieri Oil & Gas, announced a renewed bid to privatise the yard group in a delisting proposal announced on Nov 13, 2017. Fincantieri Oil & Gas is wholly owned by Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri SpA. Fincantieri last made an offer to privatise Vard in November 2016. Its previous offer priced at 24 Singapore cents per share received sufficient acceptances to turn unconditional, but fell short of meeting the requisite level for Fincantieri to force a delisting.
Datapulse Technology: It has till April 11 to reappoint independent professionals to conduct an independent review of the company's internal controls and corporate governance, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) said on Wednesday.
Datapulse had failed to disclose certain information when it announced on March 11 its appointment of RHTLaw Taylor Wessing (RHTLaw) as the independent reviewer, the SGX said. The SGX said that RHT Capital, a company within the RHT Group of companies as RHTLaw, has been the continuing sponsor of Catalist-listed OEL Holdings since Feb 18, 2012. Low Beng Tin, an independent director and chairman of the board of OEL Holdings, was the founder and executive director of OEL from Sept 15, 1984 to Oct 18, 2016. He is also the current chairman of Datapulse.
IPC Corporation: A conditional offer for the Ngiam family's shares in mainboard-listed IPC Corporation has been terminated "with mutual consent", the board of directors said on Wednesday evening. Chief executive Patrick Ngiam, his wife and executive director Lauw Hui Kian, managing director Benjamin Ngiam and executive director Alfred Ngiam had earlier accepted an offer from Asia-Pacific Strategic Investments for 11.9 million of their shares, or a 13.95 per cent stake in IPC. Catalist-listed Asia-Pacific Strategic Investments had also made a bid for 28.1 million shares, or a 32.96 per cent interest, from tycoon Oei Hong Leong. The move would have triggered a mandatory unconditional offer for the rest of IPC's shares - but Mr Oei withdrew his acceptance of the offer on March 2.
Compact Metal: The mainboard-listed aluminium dealer announced that it has received in-principle approval from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to exit the bourse's watch list with effect from April 5, 2018. Compact Metal had been on the watch list since March 4, 2015 and had submitted an application to the exchange on March 2 to have it removed from the list. Citing its full-year financial results announced on Feb 26, the aluminium product supplier said that it has demonstrated the ability to satisfy the requirements of SGX listing.
