Singaporean co-founder of BN Group bidding for Newcastle United football club leaves firm by ‘mutual agreement’

• BN Group has been in the news for its bid to buy Newcastle United before it became mired in controversies
• Mr Terence Loh’s resignation came less than 3 weeks after it emerged that the police are investigating a company linked to him and his cousin, who are both BN Group’s co-founders
• A BN Group executive said Mr Loh is trying to solve problems related to another firm and they mutually agreed that he should resign from BN Group

SINGAPORE — One of the two Singaporean co-founders of Bellagraph Nova Group (BN Group) has resigned from the company, which made the news because of its recent bid to buy English Premier League football club Newcastle United before it became mired in controversies. 

In a statement issued at close to 1am on Wednesday (Oct 7), the group's chief marketing and investor relations officer Nereides Antonio Giamundo de Bourbon said that Mr Terence Loh, 42, has resigned following a mutual agreement with the company.

The resignation came less than three weeks after it emerged that the police in Singapore are investigating a company linked to BN Group’s two Singaporean co-founders, Mr Loh and his cousin Nelson Loh, 40. 

The Loh cousins had headed BN Group along with a Chinese business partner Evangeline Shen, 32. The group was formed following a merger between the Loh cousins' investment vehicle, the Dorr Group, and Ms Shen's Bellagraph Group.

In an interview with news outlet BBC last week, Ms Shen said that BN Group was pushing ahead with its bid for Newcastle United. 

BN group's bid to buy the football club had hit a snag after reports surfaced in August of manipulated photos purporting to show former United States president Barack Obama in a meeting with its founders in Paris, among other inconsistent claims.

On Sept 19, news agency AFP ran a report in which accounting firm Ernst and Young said that it did not sign off on the documents of Novena Global Healthcare Group, but served as the auditor of its subsidiary in Singapore in 2017. 

The Novena Global Healthcare Group is owned by the Loh cousins. Mr Terence Loh has denied any wrongdoing through his lawyer, The Straits Times reported. 

A spokesperson for the accounting firm had said in a statement sent to AFP: "Ernst & Young LLP were never the auditors of Novena Global Healthcare Group (incorporated in Cayman Islands)."

The police confirmed that a report was made and that they were looking into the matter. 

In his statement on Wednesday, Mr de Bourbon said that the Novena Global Healthcare Group “is not a part of Bellagraph Nova Group because we have not completed the merger” before news of an alleged forgery of financial statements emerged. 

“BN Group has never consolidated or is by any chance linked to Novena Global Healthcare and its forged financial statements,” Mr de Bourbon said. 

“We also understand Mr Terence Loh is trying to solve the problems coming from Novena Global Healthcare’s incident, so we had mutually agreed that he should resign from BN group.”

Last month, Ms Shen quit as non-independent, non-executive chairman of Singapore-listed Axington Inc, along with three other directors, as scrutiny over the company intensified. Axington Inc, a professional advisory services firm, is linked to BN Group.

The Loh cousins are also controlling shareholders of Axington, but do not sit on the board. The firm saw a string of resignations from its board after the revelations about BN Group came to the fore, including the departure of Mr Kirk Wagar, the former US ambassador to Singapore. 

BN Group put a bid for Newcastle United after a Saudi-backed consortium withdrew its offer to buy the football club in late July, following a months-long wait for the English Premier League’s approval.

When the doctored Obama photographs went public, BN Group put the blame on "errant individuals".

It has made other questionable claims, including that it is headquartered at a prestigious Paris address. 

A visit by an AFP reporter found that the Paris office address belongs to workspace provider Regus. AFP also found that no company named Bellagraph Nova Group or BN Group is registered in France.