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Friday 16 January 2009
Anthony Soh Counter Sues OCBC
In a twist to a legal dispute between a local bank and a prominent investor, Dr Anthony Soh has countersued OCBC Bank for allegedly causing him to suffer loss in a botched takeover of Catalist-listed Jade Technologies.
In a twist to a legal dispute between a local bank and a prominent investor, Dr Anthony Soh has countersued OCBC Bank for allegedly causing him to suffer loss in a botched takeover of Catalist-listed Jade Technologies.
His claim was filed in the High Court last month, about three weeks after OCBC sued him for allegedly misleading the bank into acting for him in the deal.
The case centers on the collapse of Dr Soh’s offer for Jade Tech last April, when it turned out that the amount of shares he had relied on for financing was less than expected. The shortfall came to light with the bankruptcy of Opes Prime, an Australian brokerage to whom Dr Soh had pledged millions of Jade Tech shares as security for margin loans. Immediately, OCBC, which had earlier confirmed the investor had enough money to execute the takeover, quit as his financial advisor and lodged a report with the Commercial Affairs Department.
According to court documents obtained by TODAY, Dr Soh contends that it was OCBC’s conduct in April that “precipitated the demise of the offer”.
His lawyer, Michael Khoo & Partners, said OCBC “with insider knowledge that Opes Prime had collapsed on 27 March 2008” caused OCBC Securities to sell about 101 million Jade Tech shares in the open market. The hefty sale “severely depressed” the stock, which fell to 7 cents from the last traded price of 22.5 cents before a suspension kicked in, “causing considerable loss” to Dr Soh and other shareholders.
Dr Soh argued that if the bank had “properly advised” him that the offer could not proceed because it could not confirm he had sufficient resources, he would not have gone ahead with the deal.
Also, he said he suffered “considerable embarrassment and anxiety” after OCBC “maliciously lodged” a report with CAD, which investigation was “widely reported in the press”. This was in addition to an investigation by the Securities Industry Council, which last year censured Dr Soh for “multiple and serious breaches” of the takeover code, and banned him from making a takeover offer for five years or trading Singapore shares for three years.
He accused OCBC of “gross neglect, breaches of contract and duty of care and the Plaintiff’s wrongful termination of its appointment as financial adviser”.
Dr Soh is denying all the charges OCBC levelled against him, including the accusation that he had no intention to “make a genuine takeover” of Jade Tech or that he allegedly submitted false documents.
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Anthony Soh Counter Sues OCBC
TODAY
9 January 2009
In a twist to a legal dispute between a local bank and a prominent investor, Dr Anthony Soh has countersued OCBC Bank for allegedly causing him to suffer loss in a botched takeover of Catalist-listed Jade Technologies.
His claim was filed in the High Court last month, about three weeks after OCBC sued him for allegedly misleading the bank into acting for him in the deal.
The case centers on the collapse of Dr Soh’s offer for Jade Tech last April, when it turned out that the amount of shares he had relied on for financing was less than expected. The shortfall came to light with the bankruptcy of Opes Prime, an Australian brokerage to whom Dr Soh had pledged millions of Jade Tech shares as security for margin loans. Immediately, OCBC, which had earlier confirmed the investor had enough money to execute the takeover, quit as his financial advisor and lodged a report with the Commercial Affairs Department.
According to court documents obtained by TODAY, Dr Soh contends that it was OCBC’s conduct in April that “precipitated the demise of the offer”.
His lawyer, Michael Khoo & Partners, said OCBC “with insider knowledge that Opes Prime had collapsed on 27 March 2008” caused OCBC Securities to sell about 101 million Jade Tech shares in the open market. The hefty sale “severely depressed” the stock, which fell to 7 cents from the last traded price of 22.5 cents before a suspension kicked in, “causing considerable loss” to Dr Soh and other shareholders.
Dr Soh argued that if the bank had “properly advised” him that the offer could not proceed because it could not confirm he had sufficient resources, he would not have gone ahead with the deal.
Also, he said he suffered “considerable embarrassment and anxiety” after OCBC “maliciously lodged” a report with CAD, which investigation was “widely reported in the press”. This was in addition to an investigation by the Securities Industry Council, which last year censured Dr Soh for “multiple and serious breaches” of the takeover code, and banned him from making a takeover offer for five years or trading Singapore shares for three years.
He accused OCBC of “gross neglect, breaches of contract and duty of care and the Plaintiff’s wrongful termination of its appointment as financial adviser”.
Dr Soh is denying all the charges OCBC levelled against him, including the accusation that he had no intention to “make a genuine takeover” of Jade Tech or that he allegedly submitted false documents.
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