Oh Eck, I'm not an expert, just a baggy arsed plumber, but holding more than 50% means that Liongold can do such things as consolidate SBL accounts with their own for reporting to the Singapore exchange.
According to my somewhat vague understanding of the law even with 50.1% control they cannot conduct related party transactions without reporting them and in many instances gaining minority shareholder approvals.
But what if the transaction is via a number of intermediary parties regsitered in various different countries (British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Bermuda etc. etc.)? Who tracks it all down? Not that I am suggesting in any way that this would be the case with our esteemed suitor, Liongold.
And of course we should still have independant directors, but who would propose and approve the independant directors?
Then there are all the day to day business operation decisions that ordinarily do not require approval by shareholder aprovals.
For an understanding of the type of shenanagins that can occur with listed companies in other overseas juristictions check out www.webb-site.com. However this site refers almost exclusively to Hong Kong listed companies and not to companies listed in Singapore.
And just to be clear on this, as far as I am aware it makes no mention of Liongold or their associated companies and also, most importantly, I am in no way suggesting that our esteemed suitor or their associates has in the past or intends in future to engage in such any activities.
However the various interests of individual shareholders are not always in exact alignment and with fragmented ownership shareholdings that are actually voted are what count.
SBL Price at posting:
1.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
