Treasury China Trust (TCT) has applied to the Singapore stock exchange for a temporary suspension of trading in its shares.
The application to the exchange was made by Treasury Holdings Real Estate (THRE), a former subsidiary of Irish property development company Treasury Holdings, owned by businessmen Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan.
Earlier this week THRE was sold by Treasury Holdings to a Jersey-registered company beneficially owned by Mr Barrett.
He told the Irish Times in an interview published today that he paid €2.26m to buy THRE and a second company.
That company provides management services to TCT - Treasury Holdings (Shanghai) Property Management (THPM).
The transaction was disclosed to the Singapore stock exchange, and was mentioned in the High Court in Dublin on Tuesday, as part of KBC Bank's action to have Treasury Holdings wound up.
NAMA, which had previously declared itself neutral in the case, supported KBC bank in the winding up petition.
Judgement has been adjourned until October 9th.
Mr Barret gave the newspaper details of projected profits and losses at the companies out until 2015.This information will now be formally circulated to TCT investors and the Singapore Stock exchange.
TCT has sought a temporary suspension of trading in its shares to circulate this information, particularly to investors in the far east time zones, and expects trading to resume after a short period.
According to Mr Barret TCT has more than 500 Irish investors. He told the Irish Times that if Treasury Holdings had been placed in liquidation last Tuesday it would have had "catastrophic" knock on consequences for TCT.
This is because a €44.5m bond raised by TCT contains a clause allowing the bondholder, Forum Partners, to demand instant repayment if there is a change of control at Treasury Holdings.
Mr. Barret told the newspaper "there is nothing to hide here", stating the sale of the two companies could be revered under Irish company law, if the sale price did not reflect fair market value.
In a statement on its own website, TCT said yesterday (30th August) that if the KBC petition for liquidation of Treasury Holdings were to succeed, and the liquidator successfully challenged the transfer of ownership of the two operating companies, "TCT will satisfy the change in control provisions of its convertible bond".
It stated that the change of ownership of THRE and THPM did not constitute a change of control under the terms of the documentation governing the issue of the bond. It noted that the Dublin High Court has required Treasury Holdings to provide an affidavit on the change of ownership of the two companies.
