Sponsors' conflicts symptomatic of a bigger issue

ON JAN 22, 2020, SGX Regco issued a Notice of Compliance (NOC) to RHT Capital (RHTC), a full sponsor on the Catalist board. This was for possible conflicts of interest relating to share registrar or investor relations services provided by RHT Corporate Advisory Pte Ltd (RCA) and RHT Communications and Investor Relations Pte Ltd (RCIR) at four Catalist companies sponsored by RHTC - Accrelist, Jubilee Industries, Metech International and Synagie Corporation. The NOC also noted that the RHT Group shares common directors and/or shareholders with RHTLaw Taylor Wessing LLP (RHTTW), "which provides certain legal and other services to certain sponsored issuers of RHTC". It is the first NOC to be issued to a sponsor.

The first author of this report had previously posted several articles on his website expressing concerns about other services provided by affiliates of RHTC to these companies, and relationships between some directors of these companies and RHT affiliate firms.

On Jan 23, 2020, a response to a Business Times article on the NOC was posted on the website of RHT Fintech Holdings (RHTFH). The response, which has no author listed, said: "I wish to clarify that RHT Corporate Advisory is not part of the RHT Group of Companies. In.Corp Global has acquired RHT Corporate Advisory in May 2019." RHTFH, previously called RHT Holdings Pte Ltd, owns 60 per cent of RHTC, 100 per cent of RCIR, and owned RCA before May 2019. The following day, Taylor Wessing and RHTLaw announced that they have parted ways and "have decided to move towards a collaborative relationship in place of our formal links".