GL allots $50m CDs to JTrust Asia

SET-listed Group Lease Plc (GL) has allotted US$50 million of convertible debentures (CDs) to Singapore-based JTrust Asia Pte Ltd, a move that allows the financial instrument holder to double shareholding in the Thai leasing firm to 10% if the CDs are converted entirely.

The CDs will have a three-year maturity and carry a coupon rate of 5% per annum, GL said in a filing with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) yesterday.

The exercise price of CDs is set at 70 baht each, far above GL’s share price at 18.10 baht yesterday.

JTrust Asia will be able to convert the CDs into GL’s common shares starting from the issuance date to the redemption date, the filing read.

GL shares have been in a tailspin since a columnist for local newspaper Kao Hoon highlighted an auditor’s disclaimer in the vehicle leasing company’s 2016 financial statements, noting that Group Lease lent to GLH, a wholly-owned subsidiary incorporated in Singapore, which in turn loaned to groups of borrowers in Cyprus and in Singapore.

Those borrowers are also shareholders of the company and have pledged their shares in Group Lease against those loans with the company’s subsidiary in Singapore.

Securities of properties in Cyprus and Brazil, Cypriot government bonds and stocks of other overseas companies have also been used as collateral for the loans.

Borrowers in Singapore hold a combined 75 million GL shares, some 4.96% of the total, while Cyprus borrowers own 11.5 million shares, a mere 0.75%.

More than 70% of GL’s shares have been wiped out from its intraday record high of 69.75 on Dec 16 last year.