Hyflux ex-company secretary testifies 2 lawyers involved in preference shares document
Officers from banks that had earlier considered providing project financing for the Tuaspring project have been lined up to take the stand next week
[SINGAPORE] The former company secretary of Hyflux testified that there were two lawyers at the water treatment company involved in the preparation of the document for the issuance of preference shares in 2011.
Lim Poh Fong was responding to questions under cross-examination on Thursday (Oct 23) by the lawyer for Hyflux founder and former chief executive Olivia Lum, when the prosecution witness named two in-house lawyers Joscelyn Tan and Yang Ai Chian being involved in the fundraising document issued in 2011.
Tan was Hyflux’s legal officer for corporate finance at that time, holding the designation of vice-president, while Yang was senior vice-president for legal (business).
Lim Poh Fong said she was earlier reporting to Peggy Lim, the head of compliance and secretariat till mid-February 2010. Before Lim Poh Fong quit, Yang had already taken over her duties.
Claimed the chartered secretary: “I am not a qualified lawyer; for compliance matters, I (was) not really involved.”
For Hyflux to put out the offer information statement (OIS) on Apr 13, 2011, to raise funds from the public through the issue of 6 per cent cumulative non-convertible non-voting preference shares, Tan had worked with a law firm on this, the court heard.
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“Joscelyn was in charge of the entire production of OIS, Ai Chian worked with me on company information, directors’ information and the list of subsidiaries, and company share capital part,” said Lim Poh Fong, who quit the company in 2021.
That document is now the subject of scrutiny in the hearing of Lum, former chief financial officer Cho Wee Peng and four board members.
Except for Cho, they have been charged with being responsible for Hyflux not disclosing the material information in the OIS for preference shares.
Hyflux should have included the commercial realities and risks of it entering the electricity business through the Tuaspring project to design, build, own and operate Singapore’s second and largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant, the prosecution alleged.
The water treatment company should have informed investors that the Tuaspring project would draw the bulk of its top line from the sale of electricity; and that the project’s profitability hinged on electricity sales, according to the prosecution case.
Cho and the other five are contesting the charge of not disclosing these three pieces of information in a press statement dated Mar 7, 2011, that was filed with the Singapore Exchange, announcing Hyflux being named the preferred bidder for the Tuaspring project.
Lim Poh Fong said she was not involved in the drafting of that press statement, which she merely helped upload to the bourse operator’s website.
Yang in her testimony earlier, however, had pointed out that compliance with the listing rules was the responsibility of Peggy Lim and Lim Poh Fong.
Lim Poh Fong concluded her testimony in under an hour on Thursday. Officers from banks that had earlier considered providing project financing for the Tuaspring project have been lined up to take the stand next week.
