RE: Research29 Aug 2025 08:42
THE past week has been a roller-coaster ride for Fusionex International Plc founder Ivan Teh (pic) and his team - whereby the company's shares fell drastically after it announced that it wants to seek shareholders’ approval to delist from the London Stock Exchange AIM.
The shares - which were trading at around the 150 pence level for most of last year - came tumbling to sub-50 pence level.
That's not all. The company's non-executive chairman John Croft, joint-broker Peel Hunt and its PR firm Buchanan quit abruptly before the announcement. There were news report that suggested that Croft's resignation was a sign of his "unhappiness" on Teh's delisting plan.
According to a source close to Fusionex, a board meeting was held several days before Croft's resignation. The delisting was discussed during the board meeting and Croft apparently approved it.
"He signed an irrevocable declaration to vote in favour of the delisting," said the source, who declined to be name due to the sensitivity of the information.
So, what led Croft to change his mind? At the time of publishing, Croft has yet to respond to email queries sent by Digital News Asia (DNA). (Editors' note: DNA will provide an update as soon as Croft replies)
At press time, Fusionex shares were trading at 42.25 pence - representing a 74.2% decline year-to-date, and over 90% decline from its peak in 2014. It is also unsure why the company's stock has suffered from such a steep decline, despite being in the hot Big Data and Analytics space.
"It would seem that the recent incidents may be triggered by some party which wants to prevent the delisting from happening, and also to benefit from the share price tumbling," suggested the source.
From the surface level, it seems that minority shareholders and major shareholders like Teh are the biggest casulties.
Today, Teh's shareholding in Fusionex is worth under 10 million British pounds. In contrast, his stake was worth over 100 million British pounds during the hey days.
The Sunday Times piece could be seen as calling into question the integrity of Fusionex as a company. The reputation of people like Mr Teh matter more than his products and any hint of controversy, as the Times suggests, could make respected companies like Microsoft, Dell or Amazon rethink their relationship, for the protection of their own brands' and customers.
Would you feel entirely comfortable, as the CEO of a respected bank, insurer, healthcare or financial corporation with millions of clients, allowing software from a company, possibly tainted by controversy, near your own precious clients' sensitive data after the Sunday Times has questioned the motives of the supplier's BOD?
The Software industry is a business based on honesty with security being of the utmost priority. It is a well known fact within the industry generally that there are corrupt vendors out there who embed their stuff with malicious programmes aimed at getting wider acces
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