NO SIGNBOARD’S former executive chairman and chief executive officer Lim Yong Sim was convicted and sentenced to a fine of S$420,000 on Friday (Nov 1) after pleading guilty to three charges of false trading under the Securities and Futures Act.
In a news release published on Friday, the police said that an investigation was opened into his trading activities after the Singapore Exchange referred the case.
Lim admitted to purchasing 4.3 million No Signboard shares between Jun 19, 2018, and Jun 29, 2018, using GuGong’s account to falsely push up the price of the company’s shares.
The police noted that Lim was the director and majority shareholder of GuGong, which was a controlling shareholder of No Signboard.
“As a result of Lim’s false trades, No Signboard’s share price rose by 27 per cent from S$0.154 to S$0.196, against the backdrop of a decline of 1.69 per cent in the Straits Times Index during the same period,” the police said.
The police noted that after the company announced a loss for its FY2018 financial results on Nov 29 that year, the company’s share price fell to S$0.137.
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A day later, Lim purchased more shares to cushion the fall of the company’s share price after the financial results were released. In total, he purchased 3.5 million No Signboard shares between Nov 30, 2018, and Jan 11, 2019, using GuGong’s trading account.
Later, on Jan 31, 2019, Lim used No Signboard’s corporate share buyback account to purchase more shares, said the police. This was to buffer the further decline in the company’s share price one day before it posted a loss for the first quarter of its FY2019.
In total, Lim purchased 1.1 million No Signboard shares at prices higher than the limit stipulated in the company’s share buyback mandate. This led the company’s share price to rise by 15.7 per cent over the previous day’s close.
In a deal announced in March this year, No Signboard said it would sell its trademarks under a settlement agreement with Lim, former controlling shareholder GuGong, and Mattar Road No Signboard Seafood Restaurant.
As part of the deal, the company sold its “No Signboard” trademarks to GuGong for S$10,000.
Since Jul 2, the company has been renamed to Bromat Holdings on SGX’s Catalist board.
