Former REX chief Lim Kim Hai fined $800,000, banned from directorships

By Andrew Curran.

Lim Kim Hai, the former chief executive officer and chairperson of Regional Express Holdings Limited, trading as Regional Express (REX), has been fined AUD800,000 (USD 560,300) and banned from managing corporations for four years after pleading guilty to continuous disclosure breaches and breaching his directors’ duties.

The New South Wales Supreme Court handed down the judgment on October 20. The decision followed legal action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) against Lim and three other non-executive directors. ASIC alleged serious governance failures in the lead-up to Regional Express Holdings filing for administration in mid-2024.

The court had previously dismissed the allegations against the three other directors, John Sharp, Siddharth Khotkar and Lincoln Pan. However, earlier this year, Lim admitted contravening his duties as a director and being involved in REX’s contraventions of its continuous disclosure obligations.

Specifically, ASIC alleged that Regional Express Holdings Limited issued a misleading statement to the Australian Securities Exchange in February 2023, saying the company was “optimistic” about making a profit that financial year, when it was in fact losing money and had no financial forecasts to support the statement. ASIC said Lim had a duty under s.180(1) of the Corporations Act to ensure such erroneous statements were not issued.

ASIC argued that REX had no reasonable basis for releasing the February statement for several reasons, including that it had incurred operating losses during the financial year to date and had not prepared a financial forecast before issuing the announcement.

In April 2023, when tapping an investor for AUD10 million (USD7 million) in funding, Lim said revenue from some business units was “bewilderingly bad” and cash was critically low.

REX subsequently announced a downgrade on June 20, 2023, forecasting an AUD35 million (USD24.5 million) operating loss for the financial year ending June 30, 2023.

ASIC also alleged that Lim breached his continuous disclosure obligations by failing to disclose a material downgrade because they say he knew the company was never going to achieve an operating profit that financial year.

The company subsequently filed for bankruptcy in July 2024. The administrators sold the airline to US-based Air T in December 2025. REX continues to operate scheduled passenger flights, although the administrators sold its non-core businesses to other buyers. Lim and the other directors are no longer involved in the company.

One of the non-core businesses sold during the administration process was a 50% stake in National Jet Express. Rex acquired the shareholding from Cobham Aviation in a 2022 transaction. The buyer of the other 50% stake was a Singapore-based consortium that included Lim Kim Hai.

When the administrators put Rex’s stake on the market in 2024, Lim and his brother-in-law, Thian Song Tjoa, snapped it up, reportedly for a pittance.

ASIC records show that both men are directors of National Jet Express Pty Ltd. Lim holds 30 of the 59 ordinary shares on issue. The ban on managing corporations does not affect his shareholding but prevents him from continuing as a director.

Lim was also ordered to pay AUD150,000 (USD 105,000) in legal costs.

You can read the full judgement against Lim Kim Hai here.

Meanwhile, ASIC says it filed a Notice of Intention to Appeal the New South Wales Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss part of its case against Sharp, Khotkar and Pan. The filing was made in August.

Photo: AI-Generated.
Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com