SINGAPORE - SunMoon Food Company said late on Wednesday (Sept 12) that it had on Tuesday entered into a three-month $1 million term loan with an interest of 8.5 per cent per annum with Singapore-based start-up DiMuto for the purchase of fresh fruits and other derived produce and packaged products.

DiMuto, established in 2018, is owned by First Alverstone Partners, which in turn is equally owned by SunMoon deputy chairman and chief executive Gary Loh Hock Chuan and his wife Selena Cheng. Therefore, the loan facility is considered an interested person transaction under Chapter 9 of the Singapore Exchange's (SGX) listing manual.

SunMoon and DiMuto had previously entered into a subscription agreement on Aug 12, which grants the former a non-exclusive licence for the usage of the DiMuto blockchain platform for business operations.

In a filing with the SGX, SunMoon said: "The parties consider that the three months duration is an appropriate period which allows both the company (as borrower) and DiMuto (as lender) to assess the suitability of the financing arrangement as the company is currently exploring various financing options available to it to finance the SunMoon group's trading activities."

Accordingly, the value of the transaction is about $20,960, provided that SunMoon draws down on the full amount of the loan at 8.5 per cent per annum. Moreover, the current total value of the interested person transactions is $72,960. Given that it does not exceed $100,000 nor 3 per cent of the group's latest audited net tangible assets of $14.8 million, the loan does not need to be approved by shareholders.

SunMoon shares closed flat at $0.048 on Wednesday.