Singapore

Rolls-Royce is in talks with sovereign wealth funds, including Singapore’s GIC, as part of a plan to raise around £2.5bn from investors next month, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter, the Financial Times reported. The UK aero-engine group is working with bankers at Goldman Sachs on the planned equity raise as it looks to become the latest company to tap stock market investors to repair a balance sheet badly damaged by the pandemic. The group is aiming to launch the equity raise in the first weeks of October, two of these people said.

The supervisor of Singaporean shipping group Xihe Holdings Pte Ltd has put seven oil tankers controlled by the company up for sale as part of efforts to recoup funds owed to creditors, three sources said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Xihe Holdings is part of the Lim family business empire, which also includes oil trader Hin Leong Trading and fleet manager Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd, both of which were placed under court-appointed supervisors earlier this year. The sale includes three crude oil supertankers and is expected to get fully underway in the coming days, the sources said.

Efforts by banks including HSBC Holdings Plc and ABN Amro Bank NV to recover $3.5 billion from a collapsed oil trader in Singapore have hit a snag over attempts by a court-appointed manager to tap other assets of the family that ran the firm, Bloomberg News reported. PricewaterhouseCoopers, judicial managers of Hin Leong (Pte) Ltd., has urged the family to repay creditors with 95% of their assets, estimated to be worth at least S$2 billion ($1.5 billion), according to people familiar with the matter.

The saga of Singapore’s highest profile restructuring case, Hyflux Ltd., looks set to run a bit longer, Bloomberg News reported. United Arab Emirates-based suitor Utico FZC agreed to extend a binding offer until Aug. 30, according to a filing. Utico has been pursuing Hyflux since last year, and had previously said the binding offer it made last month was open for acceptance until July 31. Hyflux was once a high-flier that stumbled after an ill-timed foray into the energy business that eventually led to it starting a court-supervised process in 2018.

Societe Generale SA is closing its trade commodity finance unit in Singapore after the collapse of Hin Leong Trading (Pte) Ltd. prompted the bank to halt fresh funding to such firms in the region, Bloomberg News reported. The bank is dismissing all front office staff dealing with transactions, while still keeping some administrative workers, people with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be named because the matter is private. Large Asian commodities trading clients with operations in Singapore will now be handled by Hong Kong, the people said.

The family that owns beleaguered Singaporean oil trader Hin Leong Trading (HLT) is seeking to block a request from creditor OCBC that overseers be appointed for Xihe Holdings and four of the family’s other subsidiaries to recoup its debt, Reuters reported. Oversea Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) applied last week for the Singapore High Court to appoint judicial managers over Xihe, owned by the family of Hin Leong founder Lim Oon Kuin, known as O.K. Lim.

Utico FZC, the Middle Eastern suitor of embattled Singaporean water treatment company Hyflux Ltd., said it has submitted a binding offer to restructure the group’s debt, Bloomberg News reported. The move caps a prolonged negotiation for one of the highest-profile restructurings in the city-state, after Hyflux said last year that it had received a non-binding letter of intent. The latest binding offer will remain open for acceptance until July 31, according to a filing Friday with the Singapore Exchange. Hyflux’s collapse has left some 34,000 retail investors in the lurch.

Singapore bank OCBC is seeking a court-appointed supervisor to manage shipping firm Xihe Holdings Pte Ltd and four of its subsidiaries, four sources with knowledge of the court filing said, Reuters reported. Xihe Holdings is part of the troubled Lim family business empire, which also includes oil trader Hin Leong Trading and fleet manager Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd, both of which were placed under court-appointed supervisors earlier this year.

London-based Nithia Capital Resources Advisors LLP is seeking to acquire troubled Singapore commodity trader Agritrade International Pte Ltd (AIPL) and its shares in its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, according to a source familiar with the matter, Reuters reported. AIPL, whose businesses span palm oil and coal, is undergoing a court-appointed restructuring after it collapsed earlier this year amid fraud allegations. It owes $1.55 billion, including $983 billion to at least 20 banks.

ZenRock Commodities Trading Pte Ltd is unlikely to continue its core oil trading businesses in the long term, its court-appointed supervisor KPMG Services said in a report that also raised concerns over transactions by the Singapore-based trader, Reuters reported. ZenRock was placed under interim judicial management in May after one of its creditors HSBC Holdings PLC alleged that it engaged in a series of “highly dishonest transactions”.