SINGAPORE Post : S08 0% (SingPost) will pay an additional S$1.7 million for the purchase of a remaining 37.5 per cent stake in Famous Holdings, which is being held by Tan Ho Sung, the company said in a bourse filing on Tuesday (Aug 8). 

Tan had earlier sought arbitration against the company in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, with the notice of arbitration served on May 17. 

SingPost said the final valuation of the options shares stood at S$61.7 million, of which S$60 million has already been paid to Tan. 

The completion of the transfer of options shares is fixed for Sep 22, 2023 as part of a third partial award handed down by the arbitration tribunal. It is not expected to have a material impact on SingPost’s net tangible assets or earnings per share for the current financial year.

This comes after the arbitration tribunal released two partial awards, the first of which ruled in favour of SingPost on material accounting and computational issues under the sale and purchase agreement. 

Later, the second partial award applied one of several computation methodologies to determine the final amount payable for the options shares, which was determined to be S$61.7 million. 

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Tan has also made separate arbitration claims alleging SingPost had engaged in fraud or concealed material evidence around the independence of a mutually-appointed consultant, who was engaged to provide market benchmarks on certain key management roles under the sale and purchase agreement. 

The claim allegedly has impacted the decision of the tribunal in the first and second partial award, and the tribunal has directed for the claims to be consolidated with the original arbitration on May 8.

SingPost said it will consult its advisers on the third partial award and the arbitration, and will make further announcements when there are material developments. 

SingPost shares closed 2 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$0.50 on Tuesday, before the announcement was made.