Stocks to watch: Grand Venture, Tung Lok, DFI, Olam, Stamford Land, Boustead, Wee Hur, OKP
Grand Venture Technology : The semiconductor company on Sunday said it had paused its proposed secondary listing on Malaysia's Bursa exchange in view of confidential talks with a third party in relation to a possible transaction which could lead to an offer for its shares. While discussions are ongoing there is no certainty that any transaction will take place, it added. The counter ended Friday 2.4 per cent or S$0.02 higher at S$0.84, before the announcement.
Tung Lok Restaurants: The group posted a net profit of S$853,000 for its second half ended March, a 52.1 per cent decline from S$1.8 million in the year-ago period. For its full year, it sank into the red with a net loss of S$1.8 million, as compared to a S$2 million net profit previously. The losses came amid F&B industry woes as the group said it faced headwinds from a subdued economic outlook and softer consumer sentiment. The counter ended Friday unchanged S$0.085 before the announcement.
DFI : The company said on Friday it has divested 22.2 per cent, or about 315.3 million shares in Robinsons Retail for an undisclosed sum. DFI became a significant minority shareholder in Robinsons Retail in 2018 through a share-for-share swap transaction involving Rustan Supercenters, an operator of food retail formats and supermarkets in the Philippines. Shares of DFI closed at US$2.76, up US$0.08 or 3 per cent on Friday, before the announcement.
Olam : The agribusiness giant has secured a US$1.85 billion loan for general corporate purposes, said the company on Friday via a bourse filing. The loan, which was taken by Olam Agri – the company's food, feed and fibre operating group – has a three-year tenor and will be disbursed in two tranches. Shares of Olam closed 1.1 per cent, or S$0.01 higher at S$0.90 on Friday.
Stamford Land : The property company on Friday reported a 14.2 per cent fall in net profit to S$17.6 million for its second half ended March, from S$20.6 million in the year-ago period. This came amid a 6.5 per cent decline in revenue, which came in at S$78.3 million as compared to S$83.8 million previously. Earnings per share stood at S$0.0119, down from S$0.0138. For the full year ended Mar 31, profit rose to S$32.8 million from S$5.9 million due to the absence of a fair value loss of S$81.5 million on investment property in the year ago period. The counter ended Friday flat at S$0.375 before the announcement.
Boustead : A joint venture of Boustead Projects' wholly owned subsidiary was awarded a tender by JTC Corporation on Friday to develop an industrial facility on a land parcel under the industrial government land sales programme. The land parcel – known as Tukang Innovation Drive Plot A – spans 18,687 square metres, with a proposed allowable gross floor area of 46,717.5 sq m. Shares of Boustead closed at S$1.11, down S$0.03 or 2.6 per cent on Friday, before the announcement.
Wee Hur : The property company has established a S$500 million multi-currency medium term note programme, it said via a bourse filing on Friday. The proceeds raised from notes issued under this programme will be used for the company's general corporate purposes. Shares of Wee Hur closed flat at S$0.42 on Friday.
OKP : A unit of mainboard-listed infrastructure and civil engineering company OKP has won a contract worth S$258.3 million from the Land Transport Authority for the construction of new cycling path networks. OKP closed at S$0.725, up S$0.01 or 1.4 per cent on Friday, before the announcement.
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He had asked a court to reduce the sum from about $5,800 a month to $2,500 but blundered by inadvertently talking about a foreign bank account that was not disclosed in their past dealings. With the cat out of the bag, the ex-wife engaged a financial sleuth to look into that account. The 'forensic investigative report' that followed revealed that there was a balance of about US$1.9 million around the time when they split. Further checks also uncovered that the ex-husband had a stake of US$800,000 in a company that was also not disclosed during their divorce settlement. This meant the couple should have been looking at an asset division of $7.7 million instead of $4.5 million. Disclosure is mandatory Cases like this highlight the risk of one party hiding assets whenever couples make decisions without any inquiry or a court order for a full and frank disclosure of just what each party owns. In this case, the husband's lawyer argued that a full disclosure might not be mandatory for all negotiations for divorce settlements, especially when couples were in touch directly. For instance, spouses might sometimes agree to divide the matrimonial home and retain any assets held in their sole names without disclosing the full list of all assets. In this case, when the wife said she would accept $2 million in full settlement, the husband actually replied that he would only accept this proposal 'under protest' pending a 'global settlement of all the ancillary matters'. If he had dishonestly concealed his assets, his lawyer said, he would have immediately accepted the offer without any condition. Moreover, he would also not have asked for more time to pay as this could risk scuttling a settlement that was in his favour. But High Court Judge Choo Han Teck did not buy the argument because the responsibility of full and frank disclosure applies not only to contested divorces but also to exchanges of information between parties and their lawyers. After all, the outcome of such negotiations is still subject to the court's approval. If the husband had been forthright from the start by disclosing all his assets while asserting that he would be willing to divide only some of them, he would have avoided the current dispute, the judge added. Hiding assets from ex-spouse The husband claimed that the disputed sum was not relevant to the divorce because the funds were loans from his former business partner who later died. He added that his then wife knew about this and the late partner's relatives were willing to waive the loans in exchange for help in procuring certain assets. He added that the documents did not reveal any fraud and that he never told his ex-wife during their negotiations that he had disclosed all his assets then. But Justice Choo noted that the husband's conduct revealed 'a pattern of deliberate concealment rather than mere oversight'. For instance, he first claimed that the money in the bank account originated from the sale of stock options but later changed this story to claim the funds were loans for investments that were subsequently waived. 'His inconsistent narratives suggest an attempt to conceal his assets rather than a genuine explanation for their non-disclosure,' Justice Choo added. Similarly, the husband was not justified in giving a false statement to claim that his undisclosed company was registered in 2018, when the evidence showed that he had owned it since 2004. 'Such a significant misrepresentation about a company he owned for two decades cannot be an innocuous error,' Justice Choo added. Effect of non-disclosure If the wife knew from the start that her ex-husband had stashed away assets but chose to accept a fixed settlement sum of $2 million, she would not be permitted to renege on the deal based on the fraudulent non-disclosure. Justice Choo noted that the wife probably knew her ex-husband might have other assets since she knew that he 'came from money' and owned shares in the family company. Yet, she never asked to include those assets in the joint asset list during their negotiations. But the million-dollar question has yet to be answered: Would the parties have been able to reach a deal if all the assets were on the table then and, if so, would the wife have still been able to get 44.5 per cent of the total pool of matrimonial assets? Justice Choo noted that even if he had found that the hidden assets should have been considered in the split, the solution cannot be to retrospectively increase the pool of matrimonial assets and award the wife 44.5 per cent of the undisclosed sum. In past cases, the courts had used such a 'quantification approach' to increase the shares for spouses during ongoing hearings when there was evidence of non-disclosure. But the judge said that this approach could not be used in this case because the terms of the deal were agreed upon 15 years ago, and the wife had also received the $2 million settlement sum. So there was no legal basis to allow her to keep this sum and simultaneously receive an additional award based on the undisclosed assets. The wife cannot have her cake and eat it too because the rule that 'fraud unravels all' means that once fraud is established, the settlement deal must be set aside entirely, and not partially varied. In the end, the court did not make a ruling on the hidden stash because both sides would need to present fresh arguments for it. What this means is that with more money on the table now, both sides must decide whether they should start a new court action or reach a new settlement on the division of their matrimonial assets. If there is a lesson in this case, it is that spouses should always be upfront with each other when things go wrong so that they avoid prolonging the pain and incurring more legal costs. After all, some secrets can't stay hidden forever and if it happens like in this case, the parties have to relive the nightmare of fighting with each other again. Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction. Print
