WBL break-up sparks questions at OCBC AGM

Singapore

THE break-up of WBL Corporation just two years after OCBC affiliate United Engineers (UE) took full control of it was the topic of the first set of questions targeted at the OCBC board at the bank's shareholders' meeting on Tuesday, even as OCBC chief executive said the bank was in no hurry to offload its UE stake.

Consciously or not, the name of Chew Gek Khim - the head of The Straits Trading Company who eventually walked away from the takeover bid for WBL initiated by her company - came up at the annual general meeting (AGM), as one shareholder asked why the board had no female directors. A shareholder named Mr Smith sought "the point" of UE buying WBL, when parts of WBL were then sold soon after. Last year, WBL sold its mainboard-listed MFS Technology and, later, Wearnes Automotive.