Cordlife’s CFO arrested amid CAD probe; TransGlobal makes another requisition attempt

CORDLIFE Group’s chief financial officer Thet Hnin Yi was the latest to be arrested by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and released on bail after four of the company’s directors and its former group chief executive, Tan Poh Lan, went through the same process.

The cord-blood bank on Wednesday (Mar 27) said Thet was also arrested in connection with potential breaches of disclosure obligations related to irregular temperatures of a certain cryogenic storage tank, first disclosed by the group on Nov 30, 2023.

Cordlife, however, maintained that it would “be in the interests of the company” for Thet to remain at her post, as she has been with the company for about 17 years and is “very familiar” with its historical and current financial numbers and information. This would be “useful to the board in its decision with regards to ongoing matters facing the company”, it added.

Aside from working with external auditors to finalise the accounts for Cordlife’s financial year ended Dec 31, 2023, Thet was also highlighted as “the key person liasing and managing responses to be sent to the regulators”.

The group added that she works closely with its legal advisers regarding announcements released by Cordlife, as well as its company secretary in relation to corporate secretarial matters.

“Ms Thet has been instrumental and proactive in assisting the board and the ongoing work undertaken by the company to investigate and address the lapses identified by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in relation to the company’s Singapore operations.”

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Its nominating committee and the board both were of the view that Thet would be able to continue fulfilling her duties professionally as CFO, and will be able to “discharge her duties in an independent and professional manner”.

It maintained that Thet’s continued presence in her role as CFO would be “very relevant to the board as she will be able to share her experience and deep financial knowledge that (are) very important to the board”.

Last November, MOH handed the mainboard-listed healthcare provider a six-month suspension notice when it came to light that Cordlife kept some cord-blood tanks at above acceptable temperature limits. An audit found that cryopreserved cord-blood units in seven tanks had been exposed to temperatures above -150 degrees Celsius. At the time, the cord-blood units in one of the seven tanks were confirmed to have been damaged. Some 2,200 cord-blood units in the tank belong to at least 2,150 clients.

MOH said the final results of the tests on the affected cord-blood units will be ready by end-March.

The ministry also found three other process lapses at Cordlife, and said it would require the healthcare group to rectify these issues by end-May.

Shares of Cordlife : P8A 0% were unchanged at S$0.19 as at 1.36 pm on Wednesday, after the company’s latest announcement. 

TransGlobal takes another shot

Prior to the market open on Wednesday, the group announced that it received yet another requisition notice from its controlling shareholder, TransGlobal Real Estate Group, amid the latter’s dispute with Cordlife’s substantial shareholder Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store.

This time, the letter was issued by Phillip Securities acting as a nominee or custodian for Haitong International Securities for TransGlobal as its underlying client.

TransGlobal was again seeking to reject proposed resolutions by Nanjing Xinjiekou in its Mar 14 notice, as well as remove two non-independent, non-executive directors – Shally Chen (also known as Chen Xiaoling) and Zhai Lingyun.

Cordlife said it was considering the Mar 26 letter and intends to seek legal advice on its validity.

In its previous notice dated Mar 18, TransGlobal requested for similar resolutions to be tabled at either a specially convened extraordinary general meeting or Cordlife’s next annual general meeting.

Cordlife on Sunday said it would not be doing so after obtaining legal advice that TransGlobal itself was not a “member” of the company, and therefore not entitled to put forward any resolutions.

It would, however, table seven ordinary resolutions listed in Nanjing Xinjiekou’s Mar 14 notice, which was also issued by Phillip Securities.

This comes after Cordlife verified Phillip Securities’ shareholding as nominee for Nanjing Xinjiekou.

The Mar 14 notice called for the removal of four directors – acting chairman Ho Choon Hou and independent directors Yeo Hwee Tiong, Titus Cheong and Joseph Wong – as well as the appointment of three individuals to the board – Teo Tong Kooi, Xu Tianhong and Cai Yong.

TransGlobal’s Mar 26 letter marks the third requisition notice received by Cordlife regarding this matter. It also represents the second requisition attempt made by TransGlobal.