For Oceanus minorities, relief comes too late
The company's debt restructuring offers hope, but minority shareholders recall when the stock was worth barely a cent. In these businesses, nature and luck play their hand
Add BT as a preferred source
Angela Tan
OCEANUS Group, touted as the world's largest land-based abalone producer, may have escaped yet another financial crisis with its latest debt-restructuring exercise.
Three days before Christmas, shareholders of the abalone and premium seafood supplier, which has been on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) watch list since December 2015, approved its debt-restructuring exercise at an extraordinary general meeting.
In this latest exercise, some 19.7 billion new shares will be issued at S$0.00395 a share. It will clear S$71.8 million, or 85 per cent, of the group's total outstanding debt, while providing S$6 million in much-needed fresh capital, including S$900,000 from Oceanus' executive director and chief executive officer Peter Koh. After the exercise, his stake in Oceanus will rise to 10.23 per cent from 0.24 per cent.
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
