FSL Trust's top management quit

Following a three-day suspension of trading on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) FSL Trust announced that chairman and director, Wong Meng Meng; president and ceo, Philip Clausius; and senior vice president and cfo, Chong Chee Tham had all resigned from FSL Trust Management.

In all three cases FSL Trust said: “To the best of the knowledge of the board of directors, there are differences in opinion in respect of the management of First Ship Lease Trust and FSL Trust Management Pte Ltd.”

On 10 June FSL Trust announced a six-month extension of loan convenant relaxation and it was revealed today that at the time there had been no board resolution approving the extension. While the extension has now been approved by the board they have yet to be signed by the Trust’s lenders.

“Pending signing by FSL Trust’s lenders of the final agreement for the extension and satisfaction of the other conditions described in the announcement, FSL Trust, as at the time of this announcement, would not fulfill the minimum debt service coverage ratio and/or security value- to-loan ratio under its loan agreement with its lenders,” FSL Trust warned.

All the announcements were submitted to SGX by non-independent director Timothy James Reid a restructuring specialist and a partner at Ferrier Hodgson, who was appointed to the board on 17 June.

Clausius and Cheong have been in FSL Trust’s top management since the time of its listing on SGX in 2007. FSL Trust said Clausius would serve notice until 31 December while Cheong will serve notice till 30 September.

FSL Trust has struggled with a series of charter defaults the latest of which came from Geden Holdings for non-payment of charters on a pair of aframax tankers.