E-wallet and e-money platform provider TNG FinTech is facing an oppression lawsuit from minority stakeholders in Malaysian FinTech firm Tranglo.
The origins of the affair can be tracked back to October 2018 when TNG FinTech bought a 60% stake in Tranglo from private equity fund management company Ekuinas.
The minority stakeholders suing the TNG FinTech are named as Impiro Asia Ltd and Mohammad Hassan Rasheed Gharaybeh, who collectively hold 13.6% equity in Tranglo, according to The Sun Daily.
They allege that Tranglo risked missing its $3bn processing value target by 2020 due to a series of events that are said to have materially impeded business operations, including TNG FinTech’s rejection of Tranglo’s approved financing plan and an unreasonable delay in signing up new bank partners.
“The situation at Tranglo has worsened to the extent that the management and staff time are tied up responding to requests from [Alex Kong, CEO and founder of TNG FinTech] under the claim of executing his fiduciary duty on Tranglo,” claimed Simon Landsheer, director at Impiro Asia Ltd. “Requests such as for information to be supplied and in specific format in a short turnaround time do not contribute to productive operations.”
He also alleged that the negotiations to acquire the minority stakeholders’ stake in the business were not conducted in good faith. “All five proposals received require the minority shareholder to relinquish board representation the moment the share sales agreement is signed,” he added.
Landsheer claimed that Kong had pledged to acquire the minority stake by February this year.
He also alleged, “Whilst TNG FinTech had issued a statement on September 11, 2017 on its completion of a $115m Series A funding, Kong admitted in an email on April 8, 2019 to BNM that this funding never materialized.”
The minority shareholders are seeking for dividends to be paid and Tranglo to be wound up due to the untenable working relationship with TNG FinTech.
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