According to filings by First Natural, there has been on-going dispute between First Natural (1076) and Deutsche Bank on an interest rate swap in November. I guess negotiations didn’t help much and according to Apple Daily, Deutsche has filed a claim against First Natural for around USD 16 million (or HKD 124 million) this week. Surprisingly, on the same day, on the trade suspension notice filed by First Natural, the footnote says “the board of directors of the Company comprises of one executive director: Mr. Yeung Chung Lung; and no independent non-executive director.” There is no explanation on what has happened to the other six executive and non-executive directors. (The six are: Mr. Yang Le (executive), Mr. Ni Chao Peng (executive), Mr. Yip Tze Wai, Albert (executive), Mr. Wong Chi Keung (non-executive), Mr. Lu Ze Jian (non-executive) and Mr. Leung Chiu Shing (non-executive).) Also, the notice filed was hardly professional. It was only a scanned letter, not the usual official format that probably required more time and resources to prepare.
On the surface of it, it seems like these directors are fleeing the company as they probably think that they would have personal liabilities because of the claim filed by Deutsche, if they do not resign fast enough.
I always question whether bankers have any moral concerns when they sell these type of structured products to corporates or individuals. This interest rate swap in question is a fixed-floating swap. The company receives 8% fixed and the bank receives a variable rate based on “a prescribed formula determined according to the Deutsche Bank Pan-Asian Forward Rate Bias Index”. How would these people know whether this fu*king index will go up or down?
December 17th, 2008 | Tags: 1076, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bank Pan-Asian Forward Rate Bias Index, directors disappeared, First Natural, interest rate swap | Category: Companies | Comments (2)
