Singapore

Singapore’s government has downgraded its growth forecasts for this year, as the Asian city state posted its worst quarterly economic performance in a decade amid a slowing global economy and trade upheaval, the Financial Times reported. The global trade hub’s Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Tuesday that it now expects Singapore’s growth for 2019 to come in at between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent. Previously the government had forecast economic expansion of between 1.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent for the year.

The High Court of England and Wales has recognized Singapore’s new moratorium law for companies unable to pay their creditors, Vantage Asia reported. The ruling is positive for debt workouts across different jurisdictions and a boost to the city-state’s ambition to become Asia’s debt restructuring hub.

Singapore authorities said on Tuesday they are reviewing debt-laden water treatment company Hyflux’s accounting and auditing standards to see if the firm has breached any laws, Reuters reported. Hyflux is currently under a court-supervised restructuring process and its recently called-off rescue by an Indonesian investor has thrown the future of the debt-laden company further into doubt.

With a crucial rescue plan aborted just weeks before its court-approved debt moratorium expires, Hyflux will have until Apr 25 to indicate if it needs more time to keep creditors at bay, CNA reported. However, the beleaguered water treatment firm will need to put together “something fairly tangible” by then to convince the court that it deserves an extended lifeline, said Justice Aedit Abdullah on Thursday (Apr 11) during a case management conference.

One of Singapore’s highest-profile corporate debt restructurings was thrown into disarray on Thursday, as embattled water and power company Hyflux Ltd. scrapped a pact with its would-be savior, Bloomberg News reported. The rupture follows disputes in recent weeks with SM Investments Pte, the consortium of Indonesian businessmen that agreed last year to rescue Hyflux in return for a majority stake.

Hyflux Ltd. will put its debt restructuring plan to vote this week, leaving its fate in the hands of unsecured creditors, Bloomberg News reported. Whatever the outcome, it will mark another entry in the list of fallen Singapore companies. The Singapore water-treatment and power group is seeking to fix S$2.8 billion ($2.1 billion) of liabilities by asking senior lenders to accept haircuts of some 75 percent and junior retail investors of about 90 percent on their claims.

A rare public protest in Singapore on Saturday underscored mounting anger among investors set to suffer sharp losses in one of the country’s highest-profile corporate debt restructurings, Bloomberg News reported. The catastrophic slump of the once-vaunted water and power company, Hyflux Ltd., has stunned debtholders, who stand to lose about 90 percent. About 400 to 500 of those individual investors gathered in a downtown park known as the Speaker’s Corner on Saturday, carrying placards and posters.

An Indonesian white knight, whose proposed investment in Hyflux is crucial for the beleaguered water treatment company’s rescue, said on Thursday that conditions for a deal to restructure the firm had not been met, Reuters reported. In October, SM Investments (SMI), a consortium of Indonesia’s Salim Group and Medco Group, had agreed to acquire 60 percent of Hyflux for S$400 million ($290 million) and also give it a loan of S$130 million.

Embattled Singapore water treatment company Hyflux Ltd.’s survival is looking shakier as disagreements with its rescuer deepen, Bloomberg News reported. Hyflux said in a filing that it disputes certain assertions by SM Investments, the consortium of Indonesian businessmen that had agreed last year to take a majority stake in the firm. At the same time, SM Investments is disagreeing with some terms of the restructuring plan put forward by Hyflux, the filing shows. The disputes heighten the drama of the catastrophic slump of the once-vaunted water and power company.

Emotions are running high among some Hyflux Ltd. retail investors who stand to lose almost everything in the collapse of Singapore’s once much vaunted water-treatment company, Bloomberg News reported. The frustration has prompted some of them to organize a protest on March 30 over a steep haircut imposed by the company under its S$2.8 billion ($2.1 billion) debt restructuring plan. The Business Times published a letter from a reader calling on Singapore to nationalize the plant, saying Hyflux may be worth as much as a commodity trader that got government support in 2014.