Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “let’s review J Trust Asia Pte. Ltd. (“JTA”) actions over the past few years. In 2019, the Central Bankruptcy Court in Thailand dismissed JTA’s rehabilitation petition against GL. JTA kept appealing all the way to the Supreme Court, which finally dismissed JTA’s first petition. Then in April of this year, JTA submitted the second rehabilitation petition against GL. GL submitted the objection. JTA subsequently withdrew the petition, and the Court did not accept the petition on the ground of JTA’s withdrawal. Now JTA is attempting for the third time and the Court will hear their case. As our assets obviously exceed liabilities and it is clear that we are not insolvent, we will continue to fight against these false claims and use this malicious legal attack to get even more compensation in damages from JTA. I had stated at the beginning of the lawsuits in 2018 that we will fight and win, and at last make JTA pay. Our managements and I will state the same here today.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “it is quite clear that JTA is using the Thai courts and courts across the world as a tool to try to harm GL into submission. The Thai court already clearly rejected the idea that GL is insolvent, all the way to the Supreme Court. JTA’s attempts to put GL into business rehabilitation had already failed 2 times in Thailand, but they again attempted this 3rd rehabilitation case. The intentions of JTA, its group and the management’s for keeping on taking such legal attacks against GL are ones that are malicious. They are using lawsuits for improper purpose other than the proper right to a trial. It is now more than clear that JTA had initiated the lawsuits by ‘Unclean Hands’. We are going to submit this fact to all the courts in all countries. We are now more confident than ever that the courts would understand JTA’s greedy intention, abuse of rights and malicious actions. We will win and we will continue to use our legal victories to make JTA pay us for damages.”

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “We received some excellent news in Cambodia that Civil Case no. 1657 has been struck out by the Phnom Penh Appeal Court. This is the highest court in Cambodia that can provide a summary judgement. Civil Case no. 1657 is a case where in November 2019, J trust Asia Pte Ltd. (“JTA”) originally claimed $229 million in damages from GL Finance Plc (“GLF” our Cambodian subsidiary) and Group Lease Holdings Ltd Plc (“GLH” our Singaporean subsidiary). JTA later reduced this amount to $154 million in damages, but the Court of Appeals unanimously struck out this case and this case has been completely dismissed. The litigation costs at the Phnom Penh Appeal Court shall be paid by JTA. Our next step is to win compensation for loss which had been caused by JT Group. Since there is no longer any case against either in Cambodia, we have gotten new grounds for asking for more compensation than before. The court ruled that GLF has no legal obligations nor any legal connectivity as a debtor to JTA and that any legal case against GLH did not have jurisdiction in Cambodia. It is now obvious that the claims by JT Group and the Management have no reasonable grounds. They just started such litigations in many countries even without any lawful argument. We had stated many times and now everyone can see how malicious JT Groups and its Management are. They started and still continue unreasonable lawsuits as they believe such are beneficial for them without caring if the lawsuit is valid or not.

We have said many times that JTA files lawsuits against our companies in multiple different countries even though Thailand is the only country where all litigation should take place. JTA uses other countries courts to try to harm GL and abuse the legal process when JTA cannot win in Thailand. This strike out shows that there was a lack of legal basis, lack of evidence, and JTA’s actions against the GL Group in Cambodia were based on frivolous claims. While we are happy for this win, we are even more happy to use this strike out as evidence JTA continues an unfounded international legal assault against GL and we will make JTA pay us and our shareholders for the damage they have caused our group.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “we pleased that JTA’s claim against GL Group in Cambodia was thrown out of Court. Also we are further pleased that GLH Director Mitsuji Konoshita, who was also being sued by JTA in Cambodia, JTA claimed that Mitsuji committed fraud, however the Phnom Penh Court of 1^st Instance, the Phnom Penh Appeal Court, and finally on 10 May 2023, the Supreme Court of Cambodia all agreed that Mitsuji never committed fraud or any other crime in Cambodia. It is great news that current GLH Director and former GL CEO has been found not guilty of any crime at every court level in Cambodia all the way up to the Supreme Court. This is strong evidence that when courts hear our side of the story, the courts realize no fraud and no crime was committed. We are excitedly waiting for the judgement of the Thai trial expected in early 2024 to show our Thai shareholders and regulators that GL and Mitsuji did nothing wrong.  We will continue to use our legal victories to make JT Group and its Management pay us for damages.”

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “on 28 June 2023, Group Lease’s BOD approved the agenda and invitation to GL’s 2023 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM). It is going to be held on 31^st July which is on time to previously announced by SET. One of the key agenda items is Agenda 7 to consider approving is for HLB Audit (Thailand) to be our Company’s auditor. This is fantastic news as it means our Audit Committee has received a proposal from one of the SEC approved auditors. Our AC has reviewed the qualifications and experience of HLB and concluded that HLB would be a good auditor for our shareholders. HLB is a global network of independent advisory and accounting firms across 156 countries, with 1,128 offices and also with more than 40,000 employees and ranked at Number 10 in the Global ranking.

Now it is up to our shareholders to consider and approve HLB to be our auditor. We are very excited to have a SEC approved auditor work with us so that we can finalize and publish our 2021, 2022, and 2023 financial statements. It was very long not to have an Auditor even for 2021 until now which made our Financials disclosures llate which resulted in  GL stop trading. It was a painful period of more than 2 years. However we overcame those problems and now have an auditor ready to work with us. It will be an important step forward for our shareholders.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “as I have previously said, this is in line with our plan to have a new auditor for years 2021 – 2023 audit our financial statements so that we can catch up on our public financial statements and eventually resume trading of our shares for our shareholder’s benefit. We are thrilled to have HLB review and audit our financial statements as we have always had nothing to hide and we have always been ready to be audited. Internally, we have maintained our quarterly and annual accounting processes and are ready to work quickly with HLB to publish our financial information so that the public can be informed on our progress and so that we can again meet the requirements for SET to allow trading of our shares. This is a great step in that direction and we are excited to keep you all updated on our progress.”