SGX should identify overseas firms and risks of investing in them

I REFER to the announcement by Noble Group on July 14 that it has appointed David Yeow, a lawyer who is resident in Singapore, as a new independent director.

On June 20, I wrote to the Singapore Exchange (SGX) asking if Noble was granted a waiver from rule 221 of the Mainboard Rulebook. Rule 221 states: "A foreign issuer must have at least two independent directors, resident in Singapore." As I pointed out in my commentary ("Noble should pay heed to its corporate governance", BT, June 24), all the independent directors of Noble appear to be based in, or closely connected to, Hong Kong. I could not find any Singapore-resident independent directors. According to the appointment templates for Noble available on SGXNET from 2010 onwards, all the independent directors who were appointed prior to David Yeow have Hong Kong as the country of principal residence. The lack of Singapore-resident independent directors may partly explain why Noble pays lip service to the Singapore Code of Corporate Governance.

In its reply to me, SGX mentioned that Noble was listed in 1997 while rule 221 was introduced in 2006. However, SGX did not say that Noble was granted a waiver.