USP appoints Dr Lim Boh Soon as CEO
Singapore-based, USP Group has named Lim Boh Soon as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Director, after independent auditors indicated a material uncertainty in the company’s fiscal 2019 results and cast doubt on its ability to continue as a going concern.
Dr Lim takes on the role from 1st October from interim CEO Kan Bright Pan, who was appointed to the role in December 2018.
An engineer by training, and a professional from the banking and finance industry, Dr Lim holds more than 28 years of working experience in Asia. A fellow of the Singapore Institute of Directors, an Adjunct Professor at The Singapore Management University, he is the founder-owner and Managing Director of Arise Asset Management, as well as a venture partner at TPT Corporation.
USP Group, founded in 1999, has been under the radar recently. On Saturday, independent auditors RSM Chio Lim LLP noted that USP’s total current liabilities exceeded total current assets by S$15.5 Mn for the year ended 31st March 2019. Further, it has incurred a net loss of S$23 Mn.
Many discrepancies between its unaudited and audited financial statements for fiscal 2019 were also observed. These included S$21.3 Mn increase in other losses, from S$124,000 in the unaudited statements to S$21.4 Mn in the audited statements, mainly due to the reclassification of S$19.4 Mn from exceptional items.
While the independent directors cast doubt on its ability to continue as a going concern, USP’s board said on Saturday that it believes the group can continue as a going concern.
As the company struggles to maintain its market share and goes back and forth with the auditors, it needs a strong leader to guide the team and business out of the crisis seamlessly. How Dr Lim’s knowledge and experience benefits USP and helps it get through the troubled times will be interesting to follow. Dr Lim has set-up several fund management offices in the Southeast Asian region and raised several private equity funds. One of his recent achievements was the successful listing of his oilsands investee company in Canada, on the HKSE with a market capitalization of more than $1.7 Bn. USP will strive to gain back its business momentum and confidence of the auditors with a new mentor.