(Reuters) – Shares of Singapore-listed Hotel Properties touched a one-week high on Monday after its billionaire founder embroiled in a scandal involving a former transport minister stepped down as the firm’s managing director.
Ong Beng Seng, the septuagenarian founder and rights holder to the Singapore Grand Prix Formula One race, is accused of giving high-value gifts to disgraced ex-transport minister S. Iswaran, who late last year became the first former cabinet minister to be given a prison sentence in Singapore.
Ong, a Malaysian citizen based in Singapore, “wishes to devote more time to manage his medical conditions” and would not stand for re-election at the annual general meeting later this month, Hotel Properties said in an exchange filing.
The company said in February that its managing director planned to admit guilt and accept responsibility for one of the charges filed against him.
Shares of the hotelier and investment holding firm jumped 3.5% to S$3.550, as of 0747 GMT, after earlier soaring as much as 4.7% to record its highest level since April 3.
(Reporting by Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
