Saturday, February 2, 2019

Another bomb to the retail investors of Hyflux

Disclaimer: I am not an investment advisor. Heck, i am not even working in the financial industry. Below are my interpretation and i am grateful if you will let me know if anything i say is wrong and i will correct it in a reasonable time. I am not an expert and don't wish to be assumed to be one. I make losses frequently.

FILE YOUR PROOF OF CLAIM HERE


"Any party who is required to and does not file their proof of claim by 5.00pm on Friday, 15 February 2019 will (subject to the Proposed Chairman’s discretion) not be entitled to vote at the Scheme Meeting(s), and may not be entitled to any payments or distributions made pursuant to the compromise or arrangement that will be voted upon at the Scheme Meeting(s). In such event, all their claims against the Scheme Companies as well as all obligations the Scheme Companies have towards them will be forever varied, waived, released, discharged and/or extinguished in accordance with the terms of the said compromise or arrangement." - from Hyflux Announcement on 1 Feb 2019.

15 calendar days to file proof of claim. 

It is extremely ridiculous to expect retail investors, whom many are retirees, to meet the timeline. Especially so, when a major holiday is upon us. While i think it is stated that those whose preference or perpetual securities are custodised with CDP do not need to file proof of claim, many have their shares custodised with CPF agent banks and nominee banks like Standard Chartered Bank. It seems these investors have to get their banks to file for them or else these investors 1) won't be allowed to vote and 2) have their claims forever extinguished. I wonder how accountable such banks will be if they didn't file for their customers. I guess nothing will happen, since there is little accountability in Singapore anyway, investors are passive and selfish to stand up for one another and banks should likely have those legal jargon that protects them from any accountability.

OCBC released a report  and below is an image from them.  Investors of Hyflux are awaiting the Salim restructuring proposal that has an indicative date of mid february 2019 to be released.
Creditors , perpertual and preference shareholders will then get to vote. It seems that if more than 75% in value  vote in favour of  the proposal terms, the Court is able to force the proposal terms on the rest who did not vote in favour. This is subjected to the following conditions. More than 50% of the voters who are present have to vote in favour AND the terms have to be fair and equitable to the dissenting class. What is considered fair and equitable i'm not sure ...do you know?


My Thoughts

The number of people present to vote is important, since both the value of shareholdings AND the number of hands are taken into account.
Given a tight 15 calendar days timeline and the Chinese New Year, is it reasonable to think that many people may miss the deadline, resulting in a low turnout?
Wouldn't it mean that the percentage of Olivia and board of directors' supporters present to vote will be higher?
And if their percentage is higher in terms of value and numbers of hands, wouldn't the proposal likely go through?
Does this seem fair or equitable?
Is this a ploy or is it not?
Is such a short timeline an industry practice? ( i vaguely recalled Ezra gave about 1.5 months for creditors to file proof of claim)
Where are the regulators? Who are looking out for the retail investors in Singapore?
Something is really wrong with my country.
Where is the accountability?

Further reading
1) Considerations about Hyflux
2) The fate of Hyflux
3)Will Hyflux recover? The billion dollar question
4) Hyflux-Treatmeat of perpetual share holders- Ezion
5) Hyflux - loans and borrowings - Pacific Radiance
6)A happy ending for retail perpertual securities holders - Tiger Air and Hyflux
7) The Very Curious Case of Sharebuybacks- Hyflux
8)What did the founder/Chairwoman/CEO do to help hyflux throughout the years
9) Moving forwards at the Townhall meetings with Hyflux - Part 1
10) Moving forward at the Townhall meeting with Hyflux - Part 2
11)The Lucky Accredited Investors of Hyflux's Perpetual Securities - Part 3
12) The Peculiar Case of HyfluxShop - Question 12 
13)Uncovering the Real Motivations Behind the HyfluxShop 
14) High Level Staff Movement Indication of Red Flags -Hyflux
15)An industry comparison of Hyflux compared with its peers - Question 15
16)What other Water Companies did that Hyflux didn't - Question 16
17)Why a debt to equity option for retail investors is not right
18) Consolidated Questions For Hyflux Townhall Meeting on 19 and 20 July 2018 - Hyflux
19)Consolidated Questions For Hyflux Townhall Meeting on 19 and 20 July 2018 - Hyflux- continued
20)Informal Steering Committee for the Reorganisation Process - Hyflux
21) What happened to other Debt Restructuring Exercises - Ausgroup
22)What happened to other Debt Restructuring Exercises - Nam Cheong
23) My layman views of the so-called " White Knights of Hyflux"
24) The Unsecured Working Group (UWG) are against the retail investors - Hyflux
25)Where to find money to pay back retail investors? 
26)What happened at Hyflux's Second Townhall Meeting

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