SINGAPORE (Oct 17): James Moffatt Blythman, who became a substantial shareholder of IPCO International just a fortnight ago, now wants to oust the company’s leadership via an EGM.
IPCO’s former CEO is Quah Su Ling, one of the three individuals now facing charges for their roles in the October 2013 penny stock saga. The other two individuals are John Soh Chee Wen and Goh Hin Calm, IPCO’s interim CEO.
See: Prosecutors confirm links between ISR Capital and John Soh
See: John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling charged in largest market manipulation scheme in Singapore’s history
Both Quah and Goh are out on bail and the management of the company has fallen on Carlson Clark Smith, chief financial officer and executive director.
Blythman, who paid $1,584,000 for 880 million new IPCO shares at 0.18 cent each, now owns 14.24% of the company upon completion of the placement on Oct 4. Under Singapore company rules, parties with more than 10% of a company’s shares have the right to call for an EGM.
According to the company’s annual report, as of July 28 this year, its largest shareholder was Mohammed Zaid Ibrahim, who owned 6.6%.
In a stock exchange filing on Tuesday, IPCO announced that Blythman, via an email sent on Oct 14, is calling for an EGM to remove Smith from his posts.
Blythman, who invested into IPCO via his wholly-owned entity called Meridian Equities, also wants to appoint two other individuals as independent directors: Joseph Chen and Ng Fook San.
A previous independent director, Ross Yu Limjoco, resigned on Aug 2. Another ID, Chwee Han Sin, followed on Aug 31.
“The Board has verified the shareholding of the Requisitioning Member and is seeking legal advice on the Requisition Notice. The Board will update the shareholders of the Company as and when there are further developments,” states Smith in IPCO’s announcement.
Blythman was said to be introduced to IPCO via a Perth-based corporate advisory firm called Smallcap Corporate Pty Ltd. “Mr Blythman has a portfolio of investments and business interests in the People’s Republic of China and in the Asia-Pacific region,” the company said on July 3, announcing Blythman’s planned subscription.
However, a Google search failed to shed any light on the identity of Blythman.
“The Subscriber and its board of directors have confidence in the growth and long-term prospects of the Company. The Subscriber, its directors and its sole shareholder, are independent of the Company, its Directors and substantial shareholders. The Subscriber is subscribing for the Subscription Shares for its own investment purposes,” IPCO added.
For the three months ended July 31, IPCO, which invests in oil and gas services companies, posted a 27.2% y-o-y increase in revenue $12.7 million, but losses widened from $424,000 to $1 million.
On Oct 6, IPCO announced that an indirect subsidiary in China has completed the construction of an 18-km-long pipeline in Hubei province. “The total cost was approximately RMB 65 million, which should provide the infrastructure required to support revenue and earnings growth as the customer base continues to expand,” the company said.
As of July 31, based on the pre-placement share base of 5.3 billion shares, IPCO’s net asset value was 2 cents.
IPCO shares closed on Tuesday unchanged at 0.2 cent. It has been trading at a tight range of 0.2 cent to 0.3 cent for the better part of the past year.
