Hyflux's former senior VP edited out some details of Tuaspring energy component in news release

The information omitted from early drafts of a news release about Hyflux's Tuaspring project could have been inconsistent with the company's investor relations strategy, a court heard on Aug 20.

- Grace Leong

This information was related to the energy component of the project. At the time, Hyflux's strategy was to focus on being a growth company to get better market valuations, rather than a utilities company.

In his cross-examination of Ms Winnifred Heap, the prosecution's second witness, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh drew the court's attention to certain e-mails sent when Hyflux was drafting the March 7, 2011 news release.

They showed that Ms Camille Hurn, Hyflux's former senior vice-president of energy and infrastructure development, had raised concerns that "could be related to utilities and its IR (investor relations) strategy".

Mr Singh, the lead counsel for Hyflux founder Olivia Lum, noted that this concern was raised even before the draft went to Lum and former chief financial officer Cho Wee Peng.

Lum, Cho and the four independent directors - Teo Kiang Kok, Gay Chee Cheong, Christopher Murugasu and Lee Joo Hai - are each charged with Hyflux's failure to disclose material information on the Tuaspring project.

Lum is accused of having consented to Hyflux's intentional non-disclosure on March 7, 2011, by withholding information on the project.

Cho was charged with conniving in Hyflux's omission to disclose the information about Tuaspring, while the four board members are also accused of neglect in relation to this.

On Aug 20, Mr Singh took Ms Heap, the company's head of corporate communications and investor relations at the time, through a series of her presentations to Hyflux's risk management committee.

In these presentations, managing shareholder confidence was a growing focus, and the key was for Hyflux to position itself as a growth company.

Building a strong pipeline of projects, including Tuaspring, was one strategy to achieve this, Mr Singh added.