<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published November 29, 2008
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>OCBC takes Anthony Soh to court
By CHEW XIANG
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OCBC Bank sued doctor-turned-investor Anthony Soh in the High Court yesterday for allegedly misleading the bank into acting for him in his aborted attempt to buy over listed Jade Technologies in March this year.
The bank was Dr Soh's financial adviser in the takeover but quit when the deal went sour early in April.
The suit comes barely a month after the Securities Industry Council censured Dr Soh for 'multiple and serious breaches' of the takeover code and said that it considered him unsuitable to be a company director for five years. It also prohibited him from making a takeover offer and from trading Singapore shares for five and three years respectively.
In a statement of claims obtained yesterday by BT, the bank said that Dr Soh had 'no intention of making a genuine takeover of Jade'. The offer was a scheme 'devised to support or ramp up the price of Jade shares' and had been launched 'on a completely false basis as to the level of (his) shareholdings in Jade and the source of funds for the completion of the offer', OCBC alleged.
For instance, a letter purportedly from Standard Chartered Bank in Jakarta provided by Dr Soh as proof of funding turned out to be fake. As well, Dr Soh 'consistently and intentionally' concealed his dealings in Jade shares and did not comply with statutory obligations to disclose such dealings, OCBC claimed.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>It is claiming $410,000 in unpaid fees, plus costs and unspecified damages for lost reputation and income after it too was censured by the Securities Industry Council and rapped for 'serious lapses' in its work. OCBC then said that without admitting liability, it was voluntarily abstaining from financial advisory work on takeovers for six months from Sept 1 and will also donate up to $1 million to 'sponsor education programmes in fraud awareness and detection'.
On March 10, OCBC had sent out on Dr Soh's behalf an offer document in which it confirmed that Dr Soh had enough money to go through with the deal, valued at the time at $116.7 million, or 22.5 cents per share. The stock is now trading at about 2 cents a share.
Investors said then they had believed the offer was genuine on the basis of OCBC's involvement and were shocked when the bid was scuppered in early April.
At the time, it was announced that the bankruptcy of an Australian brokerage, Opes Prime, meant that Dr Soh appeared to have fewer shares then he had previously stated he owned. He said then he had pledged 300 million shares to Opes as security for margin loans, but beneficial ownership of those shares had unknowingly passed to Opes, and when it collapsed late in March, to its creditor Merrill Lynch.
With a smaller holding than previously stated, Dr Soh said he could not guarantee he had enough money to go through with the offer.
News later emerged that OCBC and Allen & Gledhill, the lawyers on the takeover, had discovered the bank guarantee letter to be forged after checking with Stanchart in Jakarta. A&G discharged itself during a meeting with Dr Soh on Mar 28, and OCBC followed suit on Apr 2.
The next day, Rodyk & Davidson, which had stepped in as legal adviser, also resigned.
Yesterday, OCBC told BT that 'as the matter is under litigation, we are unable to comment'. When contacted, Dr Soh's lawyer, senior counsel Michael Khoo, said Dr Soh was 'denying all allegations of fraud and false representations'.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>OCBC takes Anthony Soh to court
By CHEW XIANG
<TABLE class=storyLinks cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>
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The bank was Dr Soh's financial adviser in the takeover but quit when the deal went sour early in April.
The suit comes barely a month after the Securities Industry Council censured Dr Soh for 'multiple and serious breaches' of the takeover code and said that it considered him unsuitable to be a company director for five years. It also prohibited him from making a takeover offer and from trading Singapore shares for five and three years respectively.
In a statement of claims obtained yesterday by BT, the bank said that Dr Soh had 'no intention of making a genuine takeover of Jade'. The offer was a scheme 'devised to support or ramp up the price of Jade shares' and had been launched 'on a completely false basis as to the level of (his) shareholdings in Jade and the source of funds for the completion of the offer', OCBC alleged.
For instance, a letter purportedly from Standard Chartered Bank in Jakarta provided by Dr Soh as proof of funding turned out to be fake. As well, Dr Soh 'consistently and intentionally' concealed his dealings in Jade shares and did not comply with statutory obligations to disclose such dealings, OCBC claimed.
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On March 10, OCBC had sent out on Dr Soh's behalf an offer document in which it confirmed that Dr Soh had enough money to go through with the deal, valued at the time at $116.7 million, or 22.5 cents per share. The stock is now trading at about 2 cents a share.
Investors said then they had believed the offer was genuine on the basis of OCBC's involvement and were shocked when the bid was scuppered in early April.
At the time, it was announced that the bankruptcy of an Australian brokerage, Opes Prime, meant that Dr Soh appeared to have fewer shares then he had previously stated he owned. He said then he had pledged 300 million shares to Opes as security for margin loans, but beneficial ownership of those shares had unknowingly passed to Opes, and when it collapsed late in March, to its creditor Merrill Lynch.
With a smaller holding than previously stated, Dr Soh said he could not guarantee he had enough money to go through with the offer.
News later emerged that OCBC and Allen & Gledhill, the lawyers on the takeover, had discovered the bank guarantee letter to be forged after checking with Stanchart in Jakarta. A&G discharged itself during a meeting with Dr Soh on Mar 28, and OCBC followed suit on Apr 2.
The next day, Rodyk & Davidson, which had stepped in as legal adviser, also resigned.
Yesterday, OCBC told BT that 'as the matter is under litigation, we are unable to comment'. When contacted, Dr Soh's lawyer, senior counsel Michael Khoo, said Dr Soh was 'denying all allegations of fraud and false representations'.
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