Asti CEO retrenched amid 'difficult period' for company

ASTI Holdings chief executive officer (CEO) Michael Loh Soon Gnee has been dismissed by the company after more than 8 years as chief, amid an ongoing retrenchment exercise.

He will be with the company till Dec 31 this year. Anthony Loh, Asti's chief financial officer, will be appointed as the acting CEO in the meantime. Michael Loh will continue to act as chairman.

The company-wide retrenchment exercise comes as the group looks to exit the SGX financial watch-list and remain afloat "during this difficult period", Asti said in a bourse filing on Wednesday (Dec 22). It added that the group has been negatively impacted by the pandemic, as well as by the on-going geo-political tensions between China and the United States.

Asti was placed on the watch-list in July 2019 because it had pre-tax losses for its 3 most recently completed consecutive financial years, and failed to maintain an average daily market capitalisation of at least S$40 million over the last 6 months.

Michael Loh previously tried to resign in April 2019, but withdrew his resignation about a year later after the company requested for him to lead it amid "challenging times" caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The Mainboard-listed company had been unable to find a replacement for Loh.

As part of his termination, Loh is contractually entitled to an aggregate of S$2 million. The board has decided to pay him S$1.4 million instead.

Shares of Asti closed up 0.1 Singapore cents or 3.6 per cent to 2.9 cents on Wednesday.