CATALIST-listed E3 Holdings was locked out of its offices in Ubi Avenue 4 yesterday after a dispute with its landlord and major shareholder over rent.
The police were called at 9.15am to its premises at Armorcoat Technologies building to settle a dispute, a police spokesman confirmed. Armorcoat Technologies is E3’s single largest shareholder with 7.24 per cent, according to Bloomberg, and is also the company’s landlord.
Nicholas Narayanan, lawyer for Armorcoat, said he had sent a letter of demand on Dec 9 to the company claiming $117,700 in unpaid rent dating back to January. The money was not paid and Armorcoat proceeded to secure its property yesterday morning, he said.
E3 chief executive officer Jonathan Ow told BT that Armorcoat had ‘unilaterally’ raised monthly rental from $8,000 to about $18,000 at the start of the year, which E3 did not accept. ‘As far as I am concerned, we have been paying our rent. We don’t agree on the rent increase which is unilateral by the landlord,’ he said.
This is the latest in the increasingly acrimonious relationship between Armorcoat and the company’s management.
At E3’s tumultuous annual general meeting a month ago, a group of shareholders backed by Armorcoat tried but failed to oust Mr Ow and chairman Peter Ngo from the board. The candidate who they supported, E3’s co-founder Liau Beng Chye, was instead booted out with 61 per cent of votes cast against him.
Mr Liau had been sacked from his executive post in the company a week previously after E3 said it had unearthed evidence, through a computer forensics firm, that he had been involved in poison pen letters sent to the company and its auditors in September.
In October, auditors Deloitte & Touche said that it was not able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion on the company’s full-year financial results.
The company lost $6.3 million on revenue of $862,000 for the year to June 30. Receivables totalling $26 million were flagged by Deloitte as possibly unrecoverable. The money had been sent to China through accounts owned by Mr Ngo’s brother to support E3’s investments there.
Source : Business Times - 17 Dec 2008
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