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.

In Econ Piling 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 debts, its other joint-debtors are also automatically released.

The case of Noerwest Pte Ltd (in liquidation) v Newport Mining Ltd [2010] SGHC144 involved the sale of the shares of a company which owned phosphate mining and production fascilities in the Sichuan province.

2010 saw many important legal developments in the area of business finance & insolvency law both internationally as well as in Singapore.

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.

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.

Through the years, arbitration as a mode of dispute resolution has gained prominence because it promotes party autonomy with minimal court intervention, amongst others.

In Regent National Enterprises Limited v Goldlion Holdings Limited [2009] HKCFA 58, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal found that a liquidator had acted reasonably in relying on his solicitor's advice and invoking a force majeure clause, even though the advice later turned out to be erroneous.

In Harms Offshore AHT ‘Taurus’ GmbH & Co KG v Bloom [2009] EWCA Civ 632, the English Court of Appeal had to decide whether it would grant an order to vacate an attachment on the property of a company in administration, even though the attachment was obtained by a creditor in a foreign court.

Introduction

In The STX Mumbai [2015] SGCA 35, a five-member Court of Appeal sat to hear an admiralty case for the first time. The case involved a novel issue of an anticipatory breach of an executed contract. The significance of this case is two-fold: under what circumstances may legal action be brought before the credit period expires and also, whether insolvency of a parent company has an impact on its subsidiary, possibly disregarding the corporate veils.