Collapse of Eagle Hospitality Trust warrants probe, regulatory reviews

SINCE its initial public offering (IPO) in May last year, Eagle Hospitality Trust (EHT) has not distributed a single cent to investors and lost more than 80 per cent of its market value.

Trading in its units has been suspended, and it is now trying to repay a US$341 million loan - a sum that is nearly three times its market value of US$120 million.

As the authorities now begin looking into what went wrong at EHT, they should not confine themselves to determining if any rules had been broken or whether some industry "best practices" had not been followed. They should consider whether everyone - or, indeed, anyone - was looking out for investors and the long-term viability of EHT.