THE outgoing chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director of Sen Yue Holdings have flagged disagreements with how the Catalist-listed company’s judicial managers managed the affairs of the company.

The grouses were made known in separate bourse filings on Tuesday (Oct 4) announcing that Neo Gim Kiong, 53, who was appointed CEO in 2015, and Liew Nyok Wah, 61, who served as executive director from 2014, will step down from Feb 4, 2023.

The judicial managers were appointed after DBS, Sen Yue’s bank creditor, applied to the High Court for the waste management group and its subsidiary, SMC Industrial (SMCI), to be placed under judicial management. The judicial management orders lapsed on Aug 17.

In the latest disclosure, Neo flagged that no resolution came out of a letter of demand SMCI sent to a company called SYH Resources in August 2021 for outstanding amounts allegedly payable to SMCI in relation to the sale of aluminium foil with cobalt and cobalt powder and a profit-sharing arrangement for supplies from a supplier.

A tripartite agreement was signed between SMCI, SYH Resources and the supplier, under which the supplier will be repaid in full, but it did not lead to any resolution between SMCI and SYH Resources, he said.

Neo suggested that Sen Yue commission a review to obtain a factual sequence of events and documents leading to the tripartite agreement.

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Meanwhile, Liew raised an issue with an inconsistent classification of goods to the National Environment Agency (NEA).

Related to that, he noted that he made numerous requests for correspondences between the judicial manager of SMCI and NEA, but they were not provided, so he was forced to seek clarifications from NEA directly.

Among other issues, he also stated that the sale of goods instructed by the judicial managers did not follow the company’s protocols. “Queries on the compliance of the protocols were not answered. The financial impact has not been ascertained due to the non-compliance,” the disclosure read.

Liew also said the profitability of the group and group companies was not disclosed – an issue that could implicate its white knight – Electroloy Metal – since new shares in the company were issued to the white knight at a price that is well below the indicative unaudited net asset value of the group.

Liew has recommended that the Board seek legal advice on whether it had breached the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) as a result.

Sen Yue on Tuesday issued a third bourse filing carrying responses of the judicial managers.

They stated that they had “responded robustly” to disagree that there was any issue on the classification of goods to NEA, adding that they had already responded to Liew on this allegation “previously and on 30 June 2022”.

They pointed out as well that NEA had confirmed on Aug 16 that they found no violations.

The judicial managers also “strongly disagree” that there was any non-compliance with protocols, adding that they had already responded to Liew’s allegations “previously and on 16 March 2022”.

They also “firmly disagree” with the SFA allegation, pointing out that the provision which Liew raised was “irrelevant”. 

Turning to address Neo’s concerns, they said the new controlling shareholder, Electroloy, has been “amply briefed” on the tripartite agreement, adding that Sen Yue has control over both SMCI and SYH Resources.

“In this context, the JM thoroughly disagrees with Mr Neo. The JM will however leave it to the Board to decide if it is relevant for the Board to commission such a review,” they stated.

Trading of Sen Yue’s shares has been suspended since last year.