CLSA Premium Faces Another Wind Up Request

CLSA Premium Limited (HKG:6877), a Hong Kong-headquartered forex broker, is facing the possibility of business wind up again as one of its shareholders requested for voting on the decision. This will be the third such request the broker is facing in a couple of years; of course, the majority of the shareholders voted against the initial two requests.

Announced on Monday, the latest requisition request came from KVB Holdings Limited, which also proposed both the previous wind-up requests. KVB Holdings holds around 14.75 percent of CLSA Premium’s issued share capital.

“The Board announces that on 28 January 2022, the Company received a letter (the 'Letter') from the Requisitionist, requesting the Company to convene an extraordinary general meeting for the purpose of considering and, if thought fit, passing a special resolution to approve the same Requisition Resolution,” Yuan Feng, CLSA Premium’s Executive Director stated in an official notice.

Failed Wind Up Attempt

However, the support of at least 75 percent of the shareholders is needed to put a seal on the wind-up order of the company. Except for KVB, the majority of the CLSA shareholders voted against the wind-up request in both the previous votings.

Meanwhile, CLSA is already in troubled waters, at least for a while, mostly because of regulatory action against it in New Zealand. Though the broker already paid a hefty fine to the Kiwi regulator for anti-money laundering (AML) breaches, it recently decided to suspend operations in the country.

Following its troubles in New Zealand, CLSA has now left with two markets, Hong Kong and Australia. But, business in these markets is not going in the company’s favor. It ended the first half of 2021 with around $3.8 million in losses and issued a profit warning earlier this month with approximately HK$57 million in expected annual losses for 2021.