Hyflux CEO offers to give up shares in restructuring plan

SINGAPORE, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Hyflux Ltd's chief executive officer has offered to give up her shares and other securities in the water treatment firm as part of a proposed restructuring plan, the company said over the weekend.

CEO Olivia Lum and the board of directors intend to distribute their stakes as well as preference shares and perpetual capital securities to other holders of perpetual capital securities and preference shares, Hyflux said in a statement on Saturday.

Hyflux is in the midst of a court-supervised reorganisation after it applied to the country's high court in May to protect it against creditors as it restructured its debt.

In October, it said Indonesia's Salim Group and Medco Group agreed to acquire 60 percent of the company for S$400 million ($295 million) along with a loan of S$130 million.

Lum said she volunteered to give up receiving any management shares in the company and that if the restructuring plan was approved, all her interests and of the other board members would be given to the holders of perpetual capital securities and preference shares.

"In this way, it is my hope that they may reap the future benefits which the Salim-Medco consortium deal can offer them," said Lum, who founded the company in 1989. Her 267 million shares represent 34 percent of the company's stock.

Lum came under added pressure after investors' body Securities Investors Association (Singapore) raised several questions this month, including over the board's accountability.

Under the proposed plan filed over the weekend, holders of S$900 million of preference shares and perpetual securities will get 10.26 percent stake in the reorganised company and S$27 million cash. They are likely to get no returns under a liquidation, according to the filing.

The company's liabilities stood at more than S$2.4 billion when it started the reorganisation process. ($1 = 1.3563 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)