Moni Plus upset over SGX ban

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
MONI Plus managing director David Kelso is disappointed that the Singapore Exchange (SGX) will not allow the listing of PNG companies.
Kelso expressed his disappointment when the company and Singapore’s Jaya Holdings Ltd were not able to complete a reverse takeover exercise after two years of trying.
“For two years we’ve been applying for this. We’ve worked hard. We’ve had a number of due diligence programmes through the business,” he said.
“We’ve had legal due diligence, internal control, anti-money laundering and counter terrorism. We’ve been working very hard on this. We had to go through the process of getting ourselves in order for the listing.
“Eventually we were invited to lodge our submission, the pre-clearance submission. That’s what normally happens. They have a meeting and they approve your listing which therefore allows for the reverse-takeover between Jaya and ourselves (Moni Plus).
“We spoke to Jaya, saying this is taking a very long time. So what we said to Jaya was why don’t you request for them to make the decision? They came back to Jaya and said they felt that because of our jurisdiction here in Papua New Guinea, and the fact that we are a financial institution, they weren’t prepared to allow us to list.”
Kelso said there seemed to be no communication between concerned regulators.
“The fact was that they don’t know Papua New Guinea, they don’t have any other companies here from Papua New Guinea. Our Central Bank and theirs in Singapore, they don’t know each other. There’s no communication between them.
“There has never been a company listed before so I think their bureaucrats were still unaware of Papua New Guinea
“At the end of the day, we’ve spent so much money on this and we’re so upset.”
He fears that Jaya may end up being delisted, “which is an unfortunate thing”.