Singapore Kitchen Equipment loses appeal for Hong Kong dual-listing

CATALIST-LISTED Singapore Kitchen Equipment Limited has unsuccessfully appealed the Hong Kong Exchange's decision to reject its dual-listing application on the bourse's Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) board.

The GEM Listing Committee had convened a review hearing of Singapore Kitchen Equipment's appeal against the decision of the GEM Listing Approval Group (GLAG) to reject its application for the proposed listing.

The committee considered submissions made by Singapore Kitchen Equipment and GLAG, and informed the Singapore company on July 22 it had decided to uphold GLAG's decision on the grounds that it had "failed to demonstrate its commercial rationale for listing and genuine funding needs".

The Singapore company wanted to utilise its Hong Kong listing to fund an expansion into China, it previously said in response to questions from investor watchdog Securities Investors Association (Singapore).

Singapore Kitchen Equipment had made a previous attempt to list in Hong Kong, but the application lapsed after six months.

The company made the latest rejected application on Feb 20, which the board said would incur about S$1.61 million in costs if successful, on top of the S$1.66 million charged for the previous attempt.

Singapore Kitchen Equipment's shares have seen little movement since July 1, and closed flat at S$0.10 on Monday.