Sakae Holdings files police report against customer who failed to pay for sugar trade

SAKAE Holdings said on Friday that it has filed a police report relating to the failure of a customer to pay US$4.3 million for 9,343 metric tonnes of sugar delivered in December 2017.

The police report follows a review by an internal audit firm of sugar trading that its subsidiary Sakae Capital Pte Ltd (SCPL) was involved in.

The review determined no criminal misconduct by Sakae, but found the sales transaction with the customer to be "highly questionable", the firm said in a Singapore Exchange filing.

Furthermore, the shareholders and directors of the customer company have remained uncontactable, as has the representative appointed by Sakae to carry out the sugar trade.

Sakae had previously appointed the representative under SCPL to conduct commodity trading.

During the July and August period last year, the representative brought a 12,800 metric tonne sugar transaction to SCPL.

The sugar transaction involved two customers - the first took delivery of 3,457 metric tonnes of sugar for US$1.6 million in October, and the second, which Sakae has filed a police report against, failed to make payment after delivery in December.

On Sep 6, preliminary findings showed that the shareholders and directors of the customer firm were uncontactable and that a visit to the place of business of the firm showed that it was apparently not in business.

The independent internal auditor's request for a meeting with the representative was not answered. When the auditor visited the registered residential address of the representative, the auditor was informed by the occupiers that no such person lives there.

Sakae's application to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority for an extension of time for holding its annual general meeting (AGM) was approved on Sep 18. Sakae will hold its AGM for the financial year ended June 30 no later than Oct 30.