SBI Offshore: Corporate governance over the edge?

LAST year, I wrote two commentaries on SBI Offshore (SBIO) regarding the boardroom tussle, the questionable transactions at its centre, and the role of the sponsor ("Stand taken by SBI Offshore sponsor highly disappointing", BT, Sept 14, 2016; "SBIO: corporate governance at the edge", BT, Sept 22, 2016). I said that what was happening there pushed the boundaries of good corporate governance.

Over a year later, corporate governance is at risk of taking a further turn for the worse at SBIO.

Let's recap the saga so far. The first salvo was fired on July 18 last year when three substantial shareholders who together owned about 31 per cent of the shares requisitioned for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to consider the removal of SBIO's CEO Chan Lai Thong as a director, and the appointment of four directors. One of these shareholders, Tan Woo Thian, was an executive director of SBIO at the time of its listing in 2009, while another, Hui Choon Ho, was the executive chairman and CEO. Mr Hui was to be re-appointed as one of the four new directors.