Committee:

Seow shouldn’t be Parkway ID

SINGAPORE

By a majority vote of 3 to 1, the committee said Mr Seow “cannot be reasonably perceived to be able to exercise independent business judgement” as spelt out by the Code of Corporate Governance.

In a stock exchange filing yesterday, Parkway said Mr Seow was deemed to be not independent due to an agreement he made with rival bidder Fortis Healthcare of India in March.

This allowed Fortis to tell him how to vote at the shareholder and director meetings.

This is despite Mr Seow not holding a management position and having no business relationship with Parkway.

The committee, which include chairman Chang See Hiang, Mr Richard Seow, Mr Alain Ahkong Chuen Fah, Dato’ Mohammed Azlan bin Hashim, Mr Sunil Godhwani and Mr Sandeep Laumas, disclosed its position in reply to regulator queries.

It also stressed that Mr Seow “had always in the past exercised his independent business judgment with a view to the best interest of the company, and sees no reason why Mr Richard Seow will not be able to continue to act in the best interest of all shareholders in his capacity as director of the company going forward”.

In May, Integrated Healthcare Holdings — a subsidiary of Khazanah, the Malaysian government’s investment holding arm — made a partial takeover offer of $1.18 billion to acquire Parkway’s shares at $3.78 a share.