Quoteworthy: "I’ve not been exactly sitting on my hands in the past three years," –— vocal pro-Beijing former Hong Kong chief executive C Y Leung, when asked about the possibility of him returning to his former post.
MAS bans four for false trading in Koyo International
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued prohibition orders (POs) to four individuals for dishonest conduct, which took effect from March 1.
Out of the four individuals, three of them — Lau Wan Heng, Goh Qi Rui Rayson and Teo Boon Cheang — are former remisiers from CGS-CIMB Securities (Singapore), OCBC Securities and KGI Securities (Singapore) respectively.
The fourth, Yeo An Lun, is a former representative of Prudential Assurance Co.
The four persons are among the eight individuals charged for offences under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) related to false trading in the shares of Catalist-listed Koyo International.
They were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment terms of between three months and 20 months 18 weeks. The court proceedings against the four remaining individuals are ongoing.
Lau was issued a PO for 10 years for controlling the trading of Koyo shares. The deed took place between February 2015 and January 2016, where Lau, who was then a remisier at CGS-CIMB, assisted Lin Eng Jue to create a “false appearance of active trading in Koyo shares” by carrying out trades in the shares in her clients’ accounts on Lin’s instructions.
Lau was charged under the SFA for false trading. She was also charged with 31 counts of unauthorised trading under the SFA, by carrying out trades in clients’ accounts or allowing others to trade in the accounts, without the authorisation of the brokerage firms.
She has pleaded guilty and was convicted on the false trading charge and 12 unauthorised trading charges, with the remaining charges taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing.
She was sentenced to imprisonment of 20 months and 18 weeks on Oct 15, 2020.
Yeo, formerly an insurance agent of Prudential, was issued a PO for six years for handing over his trading accounts to Lin to create a false appearance regarding the price of Koyo shares between August 2014 and January 2016.
Yeo was charged under the SFA, and faced 10 unauthorised trading charges for handing over control of his accounts to Lin. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 26 weeks’ imprisonment on June 18, 2020.
Goh, who was then a remisier at OCBC Securities, assisted Lin between March 2015 and January 2016 by carrying out trades in his clients’ trading accounts on Lin’s instructions.
Goh was also charged under the SFA, and has pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment on Feb 19, 2020.
Lastly, Teo, a former remisier at KGI, also as- sisted Lin to create a false appearance regarding the price of Koyo shares by placing orders in his KGI trading account on Lin’s instructions between September 2015 and January 2016.
Teo was, too, charged under the SFA. He has pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment on Feb 19, 2020.
Following the POs, the four are prohibited from providing any financial advisory service or taking part in the management, acting as a director, or becoming a substantial shareholder of any licensed financial adviser under the Financial Advisers Act (FAA) for 10 years, five years, four years and six years respectively.
In addition, Lau, Goh and Teo are prohibited from carrying out any regulated activities or from taking part in the management, acting as a director, or becoming a substantial shareholder of any capital market services licensee under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA). — Felicia Tan
SGX invests US$1.5 mil for 9.09% stake in HeveaConnect
Halcyon Agri Corp, on March 3, announced that Singapore Exchange (SGX) has invested US$1.5 million ($2 million) in HeveaConnect, a digital marketplace for sustainable natural rubber, for a 9.09% stake.
The investment was made through SGX’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Asian Gateway Investments.
HeveaConnect was incorporated on Aug 28, 2018, to digitalise the traditional natural rubber supply chain and fulfil the growing demand from consumers for sustainably sourced and responsibly produced rubber.
Since the launch of the platform in April 2019, HeveaConnect has matched over 250,000 metric tonnes of physical natural rubber for global tyre majors with gross sales value of over US$325 million.
“SGX’s investment into HeveaConnect will play an integral role to boost industry-wide adoption as market participants require an independent platform,” reads the statement.
In addition, Halcyon Agri has transferred 14.73% of its shares in HeveaConnect to HeveaConnect Equity Trust, which will be administered by an independent trustee.
The shares will be distributed to eligible organisations involved in promoting the sustainability agenda in the rubber industry.
With the completion of the transaction, Halcyon Agri will no longer be the controlling stakeholder in HeveaConnect, with a shareholding of 49.91%.
HeveaConnect’s other shareholders, ITOCHU and DBS’s shares will also stand at 17.27% and 9% respectively.
“Since the inception of HeveaConnect, both Halcyon and ITOCHU have been using the platform to market our products to some of our customers. With the ever-increasing emphasis on traceability and sustainability, which are driven by demands from the automakers — the customers of our customers, we aim to continue providing quality products, and excelling at the most stringent and rigorous requirements,” says Ng Eng Kiat, managing director of Halcy- on’s global tyre sector platform.
Gerald Tan, CEO of HeveaConnect, says the platform can help ensure that rubber traded on the marketplace is sustainably sourced. “This is an evolving industry where we increase the data collected upstream and identify problem areas, look for appropriate extension services to ensure there is sufficient effort taken on the ground to improve the supply chain conditions. It is our aim to first show where the problems are and not exclude them but partner with suitable extension program providers to alleviate the situation.”
Tan says the aim is to have a diversified ownership structure with active industry contribution and participation, and HeveaConnect is this platform from the industry for the industry.
“We see a future where trades are moved from tedious manual processes to a platform where trades are negotiated efficiently, with straight-through processing for all post-trade processes and ideally to create a multilateral price discovery price discovery engine,” adds Tan on where he sees the rubber industry in five years. — Felicia Tan
Concerns over China vaccine diplomacy “narrow-minded”
Concerns about China using vaccines to sway other countries are “narrow-minded,” a top political advisory body said, apparently dismissing a notion among rival powers that Beijing exploits the fight against Covid-19 to boost its global influence.
Guo Weimin, spokesman for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CP- PCC), said some suspect China is using Covid-19 vaccines to “expand our geopolitical influence.”
“This idea is extremely narrow-minded,” Guo said at a news conference on March 3 ahead of the opening of the annual meeting of CP- PCC on March 4. China’s President Xi Jinping has pledged to make China’s vaccines a “global public good.”
The Financial Times newspaper reported on March 3 that the US is working with allies Japan, India and Australia on a plan to distribute Cov- id-19 vaccines in Asia to counter the influence of China. It cited people familiar with the talks.
China’s rival India is using its strength as the world’s biggest maker of vaccines for various diseases to improve regional ties during the pandemic by providing Covid-19 vaccines to a range of countries, pushing back against Beijing’s political and economic in Asia.
China plans to provide 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to global vaccine sharing scheme Covax. Vaccines from Chinese firms are already being rolled out in several countries, including Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. — Reuters
