7 December 2016
Pacific Radiance is a Singapore-based provider of offshore vessels for the oil and gas, subsea and related industries. Its executive director and co-founder Mr Mok Weng Vai was arrested on 2 December 2016 on suspicion of graft and violating the Prevention of Corruption Act. He has not been charged in a court. He was released on police bail on the day of the arrest.
Pacific Radiance is listed on the Singapore Exchange. It was established in 2002. It and owns and operates a fleet of 130 modern offshore vessels.
The company reported loss of US$57.7 million for the quarter ended June 30, compared to the US$2.2 million profit for the same period a year earlier.
Mr Pang disposed over three million shares he held in Swiber from July 12 to 25. about two weeks before Swiber’s July 28 announcement of a winding-up petition.
Mr Pang also did not disclose the sale of the shares until the SGX (Stock Exchange of Singapore) queried him. He said the shares he sold represented 0.67 per cent of Swiber’s total shares and under the exchange regulations only changes in holding above one percent needs to be reported. He claimed that Subsequent to the sale, he still owned 44,211,510 shares representing a 9.6 per cent interest in Swiber.
Pacific Radiance suffered from exposure to struggling Singapore listed offshore marine company, Swiber, which is now under judicial management. Swiber was a victim on ongoing oil slump.
Swiber Holdings is under investigation by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of the Singapore police for possible breaches of the Securities and Futures Act. the Securities and Futures Act.
There were two criminal probes involving offshore and marine sector within a span of two months. Oil prices slumped over 60% in the last 2 years.
All the (three) Singapore banks have exposure to the oil and gas industry. DBS disclosed that it is proving for loan losses to half of its $700 million exposure to Swiber. Moody’s said that DBS would be worst hit among the three local banks. DBS’ exposure to oil and gas industry amounted to S$22 billion, of which S$17 billion were loans.
