TEE International
TEE International has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers Risk Services as external investigator to look into unauthorised transactions totalling $6.55 million, allegedly made under the instruction of group chief executive and managing director Phua Chian Kin.
The external investigator will also determine whether there has been any other similar remittances for the period from June 1, 2017 to Aug 31 this year, the mainboard-listed engineering group said in an exchange filing yesterday.
Beyond sifting through the company's financial records for suspicious activity, the investigator will also review all transactions entered into by the group with Oscar Investment, a company owned by Mr Phua, and other known parties related to him for the relevant period.
The appointment of an external investigator comes after external auditor Deloitte & Touche had flagged concerns to the company regarding the transactions. As Deloitte was unable to ascertain the nature of the transactions as genuine advances or made out for some other purpose, TEE International said it decided to appoint an external third-party independent investigator.
The company had also called for a trading halt on Thursday morning amid the probe.
City Developments Limited
City Developments Limited (CDL) said its final cash offer to acquire all the remaining shares in its London-listed subsidiary Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) has been declared unconditional in all respects.
The delisting of M&C shares from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is expected to be effective on Oct 11, the mainboard-listed property developer said early yesterday morning.
As of 5pm London time on Sept 12, valid acceptances were received for 58.28 per cent of the M&C shares not already owned by CDL and its subsidiaries on June 7. This passes the 50 per cent threshold required to satisfy the acceptance condition. CDL parties already owned 65.2 per cent of M&C shares as of June 7.
CDL revived its takeover bid on June 7 with a higher cash offer of 685 pence per share, for the remaining 34.8 per cent stake in M&C, valuing the hotel chain at £2.23 billion (S$3.8 billion). The previous 620 pence bid in December 2017 was blocked by M&C's minority shareholders and lapsed in January last year.
CDL's offer remains open for acceptance until 1pm London time on Sept 27.
