In BWG v BWF [2020] SGCA (“BWG”) the Singapore Court of Appeal considered the application of the “prima facie dispute” ground which a Singapore debtor (the Respondent) raised to resist winding up proceedings when there was a valid arbitration agreement. The Court of Appeal considered this in circumstances where the Appellant alleged that the debtor’s position in the winding up proceedings is allegedly an abuse of process which is inconsistent with the position the debtor has taken in other proceedings against X.
A recent judgment of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Dalian Huarui Heavy Industry International Company Ltd v Clyde & Co Australia [2020] WASC 132 (available here), demonstrates that the use of interim measures to provide security for an amount in dispute can be a very powerful remedy when structured through the creation of a trust.
In AnAn Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd v VTB Bank (Public Joint Stock Company) [2020] SGCA 33, Justice Steven Chong, delivering the judgment of the Court, (1) overturned the decision of the High Court which allowed a creditor (VTB Bank) to proceed with its winding up petition against a debtor (AnAn), and (2) upheld the arbitration agreement pursuant to which the dispute underlying the debt should first be resolved.
Singapore’s new (the Omnibus Bill) was passed by parliament on 1 October 2018 and is expected to come into force later this year or in early 2019.
The Omnibus Bill, which was introduced to parliament on 10 September 2018, consolidates Singapore's corporate and personal insolvency and restructuring laws into a single enactment. It also generally updates the insolvency legislation and introduces a significant number of new provisions, particularly in respect of corporate insolvency.
In the first judgment under Singapore’s new ‘super priority’ DIP financing regime, the Singapore High Court declined to grant priority status to funds to be advanced to the Attilan Group.
The Singapore regime is the first to import US Chapter 11-style DIP priority funding mechanisms into a jurisdiction with primarily English-law based corporate law and insolvency regimes.
The judgment discusses how Singapore provisions align with established principles under US Bankruptcy Code provisions and case law.
The case in question is CIMB Bank Bhd v. World Fuel Services (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2021] SGCA 19. The decision was delivered on 5 March 2021 by the Singapore Court of Appeal.
The judgment addresses issues surrounding claims by a bank under assignments and other security documents over rights in and receivables under commodities supply contracts, and overturns the Singapore High Court decision in CIMB Bank Bhd v. World Fuel Services (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2020] SGHC 117.
Summary
On 20 April 2020, Singapore’s Ministry of Law announced the commencement of Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act (the “Act”) and the regulations for businesses and individuals to comply with (the “Regulations”) in order to seek a temporary suspension of eligible contractual obligations for an initial relief period between 20 April 2020 and 19 October 2020 (referred to as the “Relief Period”).
UPDATE #3 FROM THE RHTLAW CRISIS RESPONSETEAM:
Background
Pars Ram Brother (Singapore Company) obtained trade financing facilities from various banks, and pledged the goods financed by each bank under a pledge arrangement as security.
The Singapore Company entered into voluntary liquidation. The liquidator discovered that the Singapore Company had mixed the goods making it impossible to identify which goods were financed by which bank.
Issue
In its recent decision in Pars Ram Brothers (Pte) Ltd (in creditors’ voluntary liquidation) v Australian & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd and others [2017] SGHC 38, the Singapore High Court held that the security interests of lenders survived the commingling of assets, and that the assets should be divided among the secured lenders in proportion to their respective contributions.
Facts