THE trustee of Sabana Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (Sabana Reit) has asked to postpone the trust’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to vote on the proposed internal manager directors.
This came weeks after it asked the requisitionists to amend their resolutions and obtain approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on the proposed candidates.
In its letter on Friday (Sep 13), HSBC Institutional Trust Services urged the requisitionists to withdraw their amended resolutions as they lack clarity.
The revised resolutions included further directions for the trustee to obtain the “necessary certifications and declarations” to be provided to MAS by the internal manager “or otherwise”, in order to seek approval and carry out the appointment of the director candidate.
The trustee pointed out that it is unclear what “certifications and declarations” refer to and who it should obtain them from. It also questioned whether such directions are actionable.
“It would not be appropriate to direct the trustee to ‘procure’ matters when it is not known what these matters might be or if it would be possible for the trustee to procure them,” it said.
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Additionally, the trustee also noted that the necessary documents need to be submitted by either the proposed director candidates or the new internalised manager. “It is therefore unclear what ‘otherwise’ in the amended requisition resolutions is intended to refer to.”
“The amended requisitioned resolutions in fact introduce significant uncertainty and confusion as to what is required of the trustee and whether such resolutions, if passed, would be appropriate or actionable by the trustee,” said HSBC Institutional Trust Services.
If “unclear and ambiguous” resolutions were passed, the trustee may have to incur further time and costs to seek clarifications and guidance, said the trustee.
Therefore, it urged the requisitionists to convene the EGM when applications are at an advanced stage without the need for a further requisition and/or “overly complicated” resolutions.
The trustee also asked the requisitionists to continue working with the trustee to finalise and submit the necessary documents required from the proposed candidates to the authority.
“The trustee requests for the requisitionists’ full cooperation on the matters set out above…Any delay or non-cooperation on the part of the requisitionists may be detrimental to the internalisation process,” it added.
Units of Sabana Reit were trading flat at S$0.36 when the market opened on Monday.
