Alliance Select’s Singaporean shareholders marginalized

MANILA, Philippines - The Singaporean shareholders of seafood company Alliance Select Inc. claimed they have been “marginalized” by the new board – which now includes new investor Strong Oak, Inc. – because of legal actions they have taken against the majority block. 

Shareholders of the company  approved on Monday the P563 million private placement of Strong Oak which had been challenged in court by Singaporean investors Hedy Yap-Chua and Albert Hong Hin-Hay.

Alliance Select would issue 430.29 million new shares to Strong Oak at P1.31 apiece, which would make up 28.7 percent of the company’s total issued capital of 1.5 billion shares.

As result of Strong Oak’s entry into Alliance, Hong had been pushed off the board but Chua has been retained.

The Singaporeans, however, claim that Chua has been removed from the executive and audit committees and retained only in the nomination committee “that meets once a year to consider candidates for the next shareholder meeting.”

The two minority shareholder further claim that Chua “was pushed off all her seats on the boards of Alliance’s subsidiaries.”

Chua and Hong are also protesting the voting privileges granted to Strong Oak considering that it has only paid 10 percent of its subscription to Alliance shares.

 â€œTo this date, Strong Oak has only paid 10 percent of its entire subscription to Alliance’s shares.  However, Alliance allowed Strong Oak voting power over 100 percent of its subscribed shares, including the 90 percent that it has not yet paid Alliance for.  None of the Alliance shareholders have had such a privilege, all of the minority shareholder have fully paid for their shares.  But not their newest favorite shareholder, Strong Oak” the Singaporeans said in a statement.

Chua and Hong are pursuing cases against the majority shareholders of Alliance Select to stop the entry of Strong Oak, which they claim to know very little about.

The Regional Trial Court of Pasig last month dismissed the minority shaeholders’ petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the entry of the new investor, but the Pasig RTC, however agreed to hear their petition for a preliminary injunction.

The two have accused the controlling Filipino shareholders of the company of railroading the approval of Strong Oak’s entry, claiming they have not been properly consulted about the new investor.