STAKE IN HOMING HOLDINGS
Mr Ren held 35 per cent of shares in Homing Holdings, Ms Lee held 30 per cent, and Mr Chua had a 35 per cent stake, according to the defendants.
Ms Lee and Mr Chua claim that Mr Chua had no desire to be involved in the day-to-day management of the business and did not participate or have shares in it, but Mr Ren purportedly insisted that Mr Chua be given a 35 per cent stake.
Those shares were eventually held by Ms Lee, who was also a director of the subsidiary companies, the defendants claim.
Earlier in the week, Mr Chua and Ms Lee testified about an agreement they signed in February 2018 to transfer Mr Chua’s shares in Homing Holdings to Ms Lee, the Straits Times reported.
Ms Lee reportedly testified that Mr Chua suggested this because he was starting his new job at Mediacorp, and that he was not involved in the management of Homing Holdings after the share transfer.
The authenticity of the share transfer is disputed by Mr Ren.
On Friday, Mr Chua was recalled to the stand to testify about the arrangement for Mr Liow Beng Hui, a manager in one of Homing Holdings’ subsidiaries, to witness the signing of the share transfer agreement.
Mr Chua said that it was Ms Lee who arranged for Mr Liow to witness the signing.
Ms Jasmin Kang, the lawyer for the claimants, asked Mr Chua to confirm that the share transfer agreement was never recorded in Homing Holdings’ company records.
Mr Chua said he was unsure about this because he was not involved in the company’s affairs.
Mr Liow then took the stand and said that he witnessed the signing of the share transfer agreement between Mr Chua and Ms Lee at the void deck of his housing block in February 2018.
He said Ms Lee called him a few days before to ask him if he would witness the signing of the agreement for a share transfer. She explained the agreement in more detail on the day of the signing itself.
Mr Liow also testified that he knew Mr Chua and Ms Lee from when all three were colleagues at a previous employer, and that he had worked closely with them on certain projects there.
Mr Chua joined Mediacorp in 2018, but was previously from SPH, holding roles such as managing editor of its Chinese Media Group.
He is currently the head and chief editor of Chinese news and current affairs at Mediacorp and also heads the company’s Youth Editorial initiative.
Mediacorp is also the parent company of CNA.
Ms Lee is a news veteran who spent 18 years at SPH before leaving in May 2017, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Mr Liow said that Ms Lee approached him to join the Homing Holdings subsidiary, and that his team worked closely with her as she ran the company’s day-to-day operations as its director.
On Mr Chua’s role in the company, Mr Liow said: “I don’t think he’s involved, I rarely see him.”
A manager of Goldciti also testified about the work Goldciti did after Homing Holdings allegedly engaged it to provide advice on restructuring options.
Homing Holdings allegedly agreed to pay Goldciti S$80,000, of which S$40,000 was paid out. According to the suing parties, liquidators could not find evidence of any agreement with or work done by Goldciti.
Mr Tan Hui Meng testified that Goldciti’s hourly charge-out rate was S$800, and that the project assigned by Homing Holdings was estimated to require 100 hours of work.
He said Goldciti’s work involved verifying the figures in Homing Holdings’ financial statements by tracing the general ledger to source documents like invoices, meeting prospective investors, and producing a report.
He disagreed with Ms Kang’s assertions that the 17-page report was fabricated to legitimise the S$80,000 payment from Homing Holdings, and that it was designed to help him and Ms Lee siphon funds from the company.
Mr Tan also disagreed that the report was not prepared in November 2020 but was backdated to give an appearance of services rendered, and that he lacked the expertise to produce a restructuring report for a company facing liquidation.
The trial resumes on Jan 21.
