Bangkok,
27 June 2019
– This is in reference to the SEC Office’s order imposed by virtue of Section
58(1) of the Securities and Exchange Act, for Energy Earth Public
Company Limited (EARTH) to clarify and disclose information in the following
matters: (1) the true existence and legal rights on the coal mines, and (2) the
report on the re-assessment results of the fair values of the mining property rights
over two coal mines in Indonesia, which EARTH had acquired from exchange of the
company group’s assets at an approximate value of 24 billion baht. In this
regard, EARTH failed to proceed in material matters and the SEC had called for
clarifications several times.* Later, EARTH hired two more Indonesian
appraisers and disclosed the appropriate values of both coal mines at
approximately 25.1 billion baht and 29 billion baht.
According
to the investigation, the planner for EARTH at the time of the SEC order (EY Corporate
Advisory Services Limited (EY)) had prepared and submitted the reports in
accordance with the abovementioned order to EARTH. Part of the material matters
in the reports involved: (1) the mining property rights in
the coal mines where EARTH had Indonesian persons hold its shares on EARTH’s
behalf. In this regard, the legal advisor viewed that the agreement of proxy
shareholding should have been voided because such action was not allowed by
Indonesian Law, and (2) the fair values of both mines as cited in the
assessment report was approximately 1.5 billion baht, considering that the
sites were greenfield located in the jungle with transportation limitations,
and thus requiring a large sum of capital. Moreover, the assessment report
contained information on the value assessment of another mine that EARTH had acquired
in 2015 at the price of 3.69 billion baht. Taking into consideration the
investment value factor, the appraiser viewed that there was no economic value
and gave zero fair value to the mine.
The
two assessment reports from which EARTH had disclosed the fair values to
replace the report produced by the hired EY included the value of coal not represented in
the estimate amount of coal to be produced during the concession period in the
mining property rights of EARTH. Besides, the reasonableness of the value assessment based on the
hypothesis that the two mines could be operated within this year or next year was
doubtful with a big difference of investment money compared to the assessment
report by the hired EY even though both assessment reports similarly showed the
mine sites to be in the jungle areas and had transportation limitations as
well.
Such
actions above may be liable to concealing material information or disclosing
misleading information in contravention of the Securities Law. The SEC is
instructing EARTH and its directors to clarify the matter, including the aforesaid
suspicious issues, and will consider legal action in due course. To protect
investors’ interest and ensure that investors will have sufficient information before
making decisions to trade EARTH shares during the temporary trading period on 1
July 2019 as allowed by the SET, the SEC views it necessary to disclose the
information above and warns investors to consider the information cautiously.
All of the three assessment reports can be accessed by EARTH’s shareholders using
their rights to examine the company’s information.
____________________________
Remarks: * By virtue
of Section 58(1), the SEC imposed orders of clarification and disclosure on
EARTH, as published in the following news releases:
1. SEC
News No. 22/2561: SEC instructs EARTH to clarify
the existence and the fair value of mining property rights
https://www.sec.or.th/EN/Pages/News_Detail.aspx?SECID=6978&NewsNo=22&NewsYear=2018&Lang=EN
2. SEC
News No. 37/2018: SEC extends deadline for EARTH to clarify the existence and
the fair value of mining property rights
https://www.sec.or.th/EN/Pages/News_Detail.aspx?SECID=7011&NewsNo=37&NewsYear=2018&Lang=EN
3.
SEC News No. 139/2561: SEC grants another deadline extension for EARTH to
clarify the existence and the fair value of mining property rights
https://www.sec.or.th/TH/Pages/News_Detail.aspx?SECID=7214&NewsNo=139&NewsYear=2561&Lang=TH
4. SEC News No. 11/2019: SEC declines EARTH’s
request for another extension of deadline for submitting the report on the
re-assessment results of the fair value of mining property rights
https://www.sec.or.th/EN/Pages/News_Detail.aspx?SECID=7319&NewsNo=11&NewsYear=2019&Lang=EN