Ying Li International calls for trading halt pending announcement

PROPERTY developer Ying Li International Real Estate requested a trading halt on Wednesday morning, pending the release of an announcement.

Its shares closed at 11.6 Singapore cents on Tuesday, down 0.4 cent or 3.33 per cent.

Last month, the mainboard-listed company said it had applied to the Singapore Exchange for an extension of time to release its financial statements for the second quarter ended June 30. It had requested to extend the deadline from Aug 13 to Sept 11.

Before Wednesday, Ying Li's latest bourse filing was made on Sept 6, when it announced that its group chief financial officer (CFO), Lim Gee Kiat, had quit to "pursue personal career aspirations".

The CFO's departure came three months after Ying Li's executive chairman and group chief executive officer, Fang Ming, resigned. The 69-year-old left the company in June on health issues.

Prior to that, the mandatory cash offer by a unit of China Everbright, State Alpha, for Ying Li closed in May. The resultant shareholding of the offeror and concert parties stood at 72.04 per cent.

State Alpha had made an offer for Ying Li at S$0.14 per share. The offer was triggered after the offeror bought about 30 per cent of the shares in the company, which increased its stake to 58.91 per cent.

DBS was the financial adviser to the offeror, while Provenance Capital was appointed independent financial adviser to Ying Li's independent directors.