Four candidates assessed for Fu Yu’s board, with no findings against suitability

Four proposed directors for Fu Yu Corporation have been assessed by an independent party, with no findings made against their suitability for the role, said the company on Friday (Jun 20) evening.

Fu Yu currently only has one director – chief executive David Seow – after all three of its independent directors resigned on Jun 15.

The company has since appointed Asian Corporate Advisors (ACA) to assess four candidates proposed as independent directors: Gilbert Rodrigues, Ralf Pilarczyk, Yang Zhenrong and Haytham Al Essa.

In its bourse filing, Fu Yu said that “nothing has come to (ACA’s) attention that the proposed new independent directors may not be deemed suitable”, and that its board “sees no reason to disagree”.

“To the best of the current board’s knowledge, the proposed new (directors) are not involved in matters relating to FYSCS,” the company added, in reference to its unit Fu Yu Supply Chain Solutions, which has been under investigation.

The update comes ahead of Fu Yu’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Jun 27.

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In an earlier filing on Friday, the company addressed questions from the Securities Investors Association (Singapore), or Sias, as well as shareholders.

Fu Yu said that its “day-to-day operations and decision-making processes remain unaffected” by the resignation of all its previous independent directors – Royston Tan, Christopher Huang and Daniel Poh.

It also addressed queries on its ongoing investigations into FYSCS – relating to Fu Yu’s acquisition of the unit, purported misuse of the FYSCS’ resources and a pre-paid commission.

“Currently, no fraud (in the legal sense) has been uncovered,” said Fu Yu, adding that there was no potential liability arising from the transactions in question, “as well as FYSCS in general”.

Asked by Sias if it would release findings by Rajah & Tann and PwC Risk Services ahead of the AGM, Fu Yu said that it would first conduct a “full Maxwellisation process” relating to the people mentioned in the report, which could take between four to six weeks.

Maxwellisation is a legal procedure in which those subject to potential criticism are given an opportunity to respond.

“The company (will) seek legal advice and will deliberate on its next steps after considering the information obtained through the Maxwellisation process, and will update shareholders thereafter,” said Fu Yu.

In June last year, FYSCS also received a letter of demand for US$925,773.57 in compensation from another company, Evertree Hongkong. On Jun 5 this year, an arbitral tribunal ruled in favour of Evertree, with Fu Yu required to pay S$1.67 million.

Asked about the matter, Fu Yu said that FYSCS had fulfilled its payment obligations on Jun 9 and is solvent.

Fu Yu ended Friday at S$0.09, down 4.3 per cent.