The case of Petroprod Ltd (in official liquidation in the Cayman Islands and in compulsory liquidation in Singapore) v Larsen Oil and Gas Pte Ltd [2010] SGHC 186 (“Petroprod Ltd”) is significant as the Singapore High Court decided that claims which arise from avoidance provisions in Singapore insolvency laws are non-arbitrable as they exist for the benefit of the general body of creditors as a whole.
In Pacific King Shipping Pte Ltd & Anor v Glory Wealth Shipping Pte Ltd, one of the key issues which the Singapore High Court had to consider was whether the defendant was precluded from commencing winding up proceedings against the plaintiffs via section 254(2)(a) read with section 254(1)(e) of the Companies Act (the “CA”) on the basis of a debt that was founded on a foreign arbitration award which had not been enforced.
When a company enters financial difficulty, it faces conflicting interests. On the one hand, it must continue with commercial transactions to preserve and hopefully rehabilitate the company; on the other, it must respect its creditors’ rights by not making payments which may be seen as preferring certain creditors.
The case of Norwest Holdings Pte Ltd (in liquidation) v Newport Mining Ltd [2010] SGHC 144 involved
the sale of the shares of a company which owned phosphate mining and production facilities in the
Sichuan province.
InEcon Piling Pte Ltd v Sambo E&C Pte Ltd [2010] SGHC 120, the Singapore High Court rejected the proposition that where a debtor is released from its debt, its other joint-debtors are also automatically released.
Lee Eng Beng SC, Nigel Pereira and Jonathan Lee from the Business Finance and Insolvency Practice of Rajah & Tann LLP successfully represented the Appellant in Chee Yoh Chuang and Anor (as Liquidators of Progen Engineering Pte Ltd) v Progen Holdings Ltd [2010] SGCA 31.
Payments made by a company to its holding company shortly before its winding up were held to have amounted to an unfair preference of the holding company and could be clawed-back from it
Patrick Ang, Chin Wei Lin and Jonathan Lee from the Business Finance & Insolvency Practice of Rajah & Tann LLP acted for Standard Chartered bank in successfully overturning a decision of the High Court in Standard Chartered Bank v Loh Chong Yong Thomas [2010] SGCA 2.
The key issue arising in Econ Piling Ltd and Anor v Sambo E&C Pte Ltd and another matter was whether the join liability of Company A as a partner of Company B in a joint venture partnership was released as a result of a scheme of arrangement which released the debts and liabilities of Company B.
Introduction
When a company enters liquidation, the appointed liquidator often needs approval from the Court or a liquidation committee before she can perform certain acts on the company’s behalf. The English High Court case of Gresham International Ltd v Moonie [2009] EWHC 1093 (Ch) established that even where the liquidator has failed to obtain such approval before acting, the Court has the general discretion to grant retrospective approval.