Aspen (Group) Holdings has confirmed that its US$210 million agreement to sell gloves to Honeywell via a joint venture has been “called off”, said president and group CEO Murly Manokharan in an SGX filing.
The company did not provide an immediate update on the status of this so-called master supply agreement as it wanted to “engage in a discussion” with Honeywell after a “cooling-off period”, said the Penang-based developer late in the evening of June 4, in response to SGX’s queries.
Since there were no further developments with Honeywell, Aspen Gloves, Aspen’s glove-making joint venture, has been “in active discussion” with other potential buyers to take up the planned production.
On April 13, Aspen announced a master supply agreement with US conglomerate Honeywell to supply US$210 million worth of gloves over two years.
The company asked to retract the Honeywell announcement three days later.
On April 24, Aspen subsequently said the agreement had not been “consummated” by Honeywell due to a “communication oversight” between the two parties.
Aspen was also asked by SGX if the recent resignations of two key executives are linked to the Honeywell episode.
On May 12, Aspen announced that its divisional director of corporate, Rowena Radha Nair, quit to “pursue other career opportunities. She joined Aspen in July 2017.
On May 20, the company said that Calvin Ng Soon Ghee, the chief operating officer of Aspen Glove quit “to pursue other interests”. Ng was appointed to this role only last September.
“The company confirms that their resignations are not in any way connected to developments surrounding the MSA between AGSB and Honeywell,” said Aspen.
Aspen closed June 4 at 21 cents, unchanged for the day but down from a recent peak of 27 cents on April 9, just days before the aborted deal with Honeywell was announced.
