Stratech Group secures fresh funds; plans to propose scheme of arrangement

SURVEILLANCE technology provider The Stratech Group announced on Thursday that investment fund management group, Boulevard Capital Partners, has committed to provide funding to Stratech's controlling shareholders, which will be injected into the group.

Controlling shareholders David Chew and Leong Sook Ching are refinancing their personal property to raise the funds to support further fundraising exercises to improve the net equity of the company and to support the group's business development.

It added that the group has received demands, statutory demands and notifications of various legal actions from various parties. It intends to make an application to seek the Court's intervention for a moratorium to provide the group with time to formulate, propose and possibly implement a scheme of arrangement.

"The application will enable the group to take steps to preserve its assets, improve the capital of the group, settle all claims, and emerge debt-free and stronger to carry out a profitable business, for the benefit of all stakeholders," Stratech said.

On Jan 7, Stratech said in response to queries from the Singapore Exchange that its annual general meeting (AGM) is overdue because of inadvertent delays in securing fresh funds. Stratech said at the time that it had been waiting for the injection of about S$9 million in fresh funds from Mr Chew and his wife Madam Leong, as well as the conversion of S$2 million to S$3 million of existing loans to the company.

Additional investments from the duo - who together have a stake of about 34 per cent in the company - would have come from a renounceable non-underwritten rights issue, in which they committed to provide irrevocable undertakings to the company to subscribe for their respective rights entitlement.

It also said in the Jan 7 announcement that Dr Chew and Madam Leong have been making the injections progressively as advances in anticipation of conversion to capital as planned, with about S$5.5 million ploughed in to date.

Stratech has been suspended from trading since August 2017 over unresolved repayment of loan, payroll and Central Provident Fund issues.