Further financial statement adjustments not expected: Trek 2000

MAINBOARD-LISTED technology solutions company Trek 2000 International does not expect any further adjustments in its financial statements this year, the company said in a response to queries from Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) arising from the recent arraignment of the company's founder and three former executives.

Executive director Kuan Mun Kwong, writing on behalf of Trek's board, said that "all relevant adjustments and restatements of previous years' audited accounts were identified and put through by the auditors in previous years' annual audits as part of their conservative practice to better reflect the financial positions of the company in the relevant years".

Hence, there would be no further adjustments in Trek's financial statements this year. "If there is any further adjustment required by the current auditors, this will be made known to the shareholders in the audited accounts," Trek said in the response to SGX RegCo on Thursday, the deadline the bourse regulator had set.

In addition, the restatements made by the auditors for FY2017 financial statements in FY2018 reflected a substantially higher profit than was previously stated, Mr Kuan said in the statement.

SGX RegCo had sent Trek a few queries after founder Henn Tan and former executives - chief financial officer Gurcharan Singh, executive director Poo Teng Pin and divisional president Foo Kok Wah - were charged on Wednesday morning.

Tan had allegedly committed multiple offences involving falsification of accounts, cheating external auditors, forgery and disclosure breaches. The other three face allegations similar to Tan's except for Foo who is not accused of failing to make immediate announcements on interested person transactions (IPT). His case will be mentioned on Nov 6.

Their arraignments had come over a year after a forensic review by RSM Corporate Advisory flagged potential legal breaches.

Trek confirmed in the response to SGX RegCo that all the charges served on the four relate to some of the IPT matters highlighted by RSM in their reports in 2017 and 2018. Further, the financial impact of all matters that are subject of the charges has been publicly disclosed and highlighted in the RSM reports of July 18, 2017 and Apr 23, 2018.

Trek's board had appointed an external professional firm to undertake an independent review of its internal control and corporate governance practices and the report will be sent to the SGX after it has been finalised. Lapses in internal controls have been identified and recommendations implemented.

Trek had invented the universal serial bus data storage device at the turn of the millennium, consigning floppy disks to history, and putting Trek on the global tech stage.

The counter was 0.1 Singapore cent or 1.3 per cent lower at 7.6 Singapore cents when market closed on Thursday.