No Signboard Holdings’ controlling shareholders, GuGong and Lim Yong Sim, has agreed to sell their total stake in the company for a consideration of $0.5 million. Sale and purchase agreements (SPAs) were signed with the purchasers, Wang Huan, Qi Aina and Yang Ji Hui, on March 20.
GuGong and Lim, the executive chairman of No Signboard, hold a total stake of 254.4 million shares, which make up 55.03% of No Signboard’s total share capital.
Following the transaction, GuGong and Lim will not hold any shares in No Signboard. They will also have ceased to be the company’s controlling shareholders.
According to No Signboard, Wang, Qi and Yang and investors with business interests in China. They are also independent from one another and are not parties acting in concert. The purchasers do not have the right to nominate any directors onto the board. No breakdown of the shares sold to each purchaser was given in No Signboard’s bourse filing on March 20.
Lim has also tendered his resignation as executive chairman of the company on the same day, following the sale of his existing interest in the company. According to the filing on SGX, Lim will be pursuing “other personal interests” after the resignation.
His effective date of cessation is March 20. He will also cease his directorships in the subsidiaries of No Signboard. Lim was first appointed to the post on June 1, 2017.
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The sale and resignation come after No Signboard announced, on March 19, that no injunction application was filed by GuGong against the company. This follows the March 15 announcement where GuGong notified the company that it will file an action in court to prevent No Signboard and Gazelle Ventures, a white knight investor, from proceeding with the proposed share consolidation, the proposed allotment, the proposed transfer of controlling interest and the proposed amendments to the constitution, if there was no settlement reached between all three parties. Gazelle Ventures had invested $5 million into the company on July 1, 2022.
“The board continues to engage with GuGong regarding a settlement and will inform shareholders when there are material updates,” said the March 19 statement signed by Lim Teck-Ean, executive director and interim CEO of No Signboard. Lim, who is also a substantial shareholder of Gazelle Ventures, was made interim CEO on Oct 10, 2023. The appointment came after the then-executive chairman and CEO, Lim Yong Sim, was charged with share price rigging offences under the Securities and Futures Act 2001 (SFA).
On March 19, No Signboard also said that it will be going ahead with the proposed 6-to-1 share consolidation. The proposed consolidation will be effective from 9am on March 22, a day after the record date of March 21.
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Shares in No Signboard resumed trading on March 15 after it received a letter of no-objection from the Singapore Exchange S68 Regulation (SGX RegCo) on its trading resumption proposal.
Shares in No Signboard last traded at 1.6 cents.