OxPay says S$77,000 in wrongful dismissal claims not declared as amounts ‘not material’

PAYMENT services company OxPay Financial said it did not announce a tribunal’s order for the company to pay its former chief executive and chief financial officer more than S$77,000, as the claim amount constituted “only 1.4 per cent of the group’s total equity”.

The Catalist-listed company was responding to queries by the Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo), which had asked why the claims reported by The Business Times on Monday (Sep 19) were not announced on SGXNet earlier.

The claims were for the wrongful dismissal of its former executive director and chief executive Anthony Koh and chief financial officer Madeline Sam.

OxPay said the Employment Claims Tribunal’s (ECT) orders, which were issued on Jun 16 and Jul 28 this year, were not announced as the board was of the view that the sum involved – S$77,501.52, to be exact – was “not material” to the group.

In determining whether the orders constituted material information warranting disclosure, the Board had, apart from the total equity consideration, considered that the claim amount constituted only 1.5 per cent of the group’s free cash on hand.

This amount was calculated by excluding the amount which has been earmarked for settlement of merchant funding, it said.

The Board also took into account the claim amount was just 0.3 per cent of the group’s total assets, based on the group’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended Dec 31, 2021, it added.

“In addition, the group had sufficient cash to meet the payment of the claim amount at any time and doing so would not give rise to any cash flow problem for the Group,” it said as well.

Given these, the receipt of the ECT orders did not constitute material information which the company was required to disclose under Rule 703 of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited Listing Manual Section B: Rules of Catalist, it stated.

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OxPay, meanwhile, said all sums ordered to be paid to Koh and Sam under the ECT orders have been fully settled, and the legal proceedings have concluded. 

Shares of OxPay closed 1.5 per cent or S$0.002 higher at S$0.134 on Thursday.