Singapore

Former tycoon Lim Oon Kuin has been declared bankrupt in Singapore, following the collapse of his oil trading empire, the South China Morning Post reported. The name of the founder of Hin Leong Trading Pte. and his children Lim Huey Ching and Lim Chee Meng were listed as having been issued a bankruptcy order on December 19, the government gazette showed. The younger Lims were both directors at the company. Leow Quek Shiong and Seah Roh Lin of BDO Advisory Pte. Ltd. are the trustees, according to the gazette.

Singapore's key consumer price gauge rose 1.9% in November on a yearly basis, lower than economists' forecasts and the smallest rise in nearly three years, official data showed on Monday, Reuters reported. It was the smallest rise since November 2021, when it climbed by 1.6%. Headline inflation was 1.6% in annual terms in November. The Monetary Authority of Singapore had forecast core inflation to be around 2% in the fourth quarter.

WeWork Inc. is giving up space in two prime locations in Singapore, underscoring the company’s challenges in one of its most promising markets, Bloomberg News reported. One co-working space spanning the 17th to 20th floors at Manulife Tower along Singapore’s 8 Cross Street has ended operations. Another three-floor space in an office building at 83 Clemenceau Avenue on the city center fringe will close next year. A WeWork spokesperson said in a statement that despite Singapore being a “priority market,” it has “made the difficult decision” not to renew leases at the two locations.

A Singapore oil magnate was sentenced Monday to 17.5 years in prison for fraud and forgery in a case that prosecutors said has tarnished the city-state's reputation as Asia’s leading oil trading hub, the Associated Press reported. Lim Oon Kuin was convicted in May on two counts of cheating the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) and one of abetting forgery. The court found Lim used forged documents on two bogus oil transactions to deceive HSBC into disbursing credit totaling $111.7 million, in one of the biggest cases of trade financing fraud in Singapore.

Filing for insolvency will soon be simpler and more cost-effective as Singapore moves to revamp and make permanent the Simplified Insolvency Programme (SIP), the Singapore Business Review reported. The government, through the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution (Amendment) Bill, has put forward changes to the Simplified Debt Restructuring Programme (SDRP) and Simplified Winding Up Programme (SWUP) under the SIP.

Slightly over two-fifths of the bankruptcy orders in the first half of 2024 were due to business failures, with debtors borrowing from various sources including banks, credit card issuers, licensed moneylenders and private individuals, the Straits Times reported. This was stated by Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) board member Alvin Tan in Parliament on Oct 16. He was responding to two questions by Mr Derrick Goh (Nee Soon GRC) and labour MP Melvin Yong (Radin Mas) on the causes for the rising number of bankruptcies in Singapore.