Stung by the collapse of Asia’s top independent oil trading firm, some global banks have teamed up to seek the personal assets of the family behind Hin Leong Trading, which has left creditors on the hook for billions of dollars, Reuters reported. As part of what sources say is the biggest legal case in living memory in Singapore, liquidators and creditors are hunting for assets from the city-state to China to Australia belonging to the Lim family, after the Singapore-based company was wound up in March.
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Lim Oon Kuin, the founder of collapsed oil trading firm Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd, is expected to face another 23 charges of forgery-related offences soon, Singapore’s prosecution said, Reuters reported. The 23 charges are expected to be tendered on April 8, Deputy Public Prosecutor Navin Naidu told a Singapore court on Monday. The Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers confirmed the prosecutor’s comments. Last year, Singapore police charged the 78-year-old former oil tycoon, better known as O.K. Lim, with two counts of abetment of forgery for the purpose of cheating. Owned by O.K.
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Singapore’s High Court on Monday approved an application to wind up collapsed oil trading firm Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd, marking the end of what was once one of Asia’s top oil traders, Reuters reported. Hin Leong, owned by Singaporean tycoon Lim Oon Kuin and his children, racked up some $4 billion in debt and entered court restructuring nearly a year ago. The company had been seeking to restructure its debts after the oil price crash last year when Lim admitted in a court document to directing the firm not to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars in losses over several years.
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The Singapore High Court on Tuesday granted oil trader GP Global APAC Pte Ltd a six-month debt moratorium, the company’s lawyers said on Thursday, paving the way for its parent company to restructure more than $1 billion in debt, Reuters reported. GP APAC is the Singapore unit of GP Global, a global oil trader and ship fuel supplier based in the United Arab Emirates that is in default amid allegations that employers carried out fraudulent trades.
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About one third of the roughly 150 ships owned by companies controlled by Singapore tycoon Lim Oon Kuin and his family have been sold as part of efforts to repay billions of dollars of debt owed to creditors, Reuters reported. Accounting firm Grant Thornton, court-appointed supervisor of Xihe Holdings, put up several vessels for sale through shipbrokers in September last year. Xihe Holdings is owned by the Lim family and held the bulk of their fleet.
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Singapore Airlines Ltd said on Tuesday that it would defer over S$4 billion ($3.01 billion) of spending on Airbus SE and Boeing Co planes after reaching agreements with the aircraft manufacturers to delay deliveries, Reuters reported. It will convert 14 of its Boeing 787-10 orders to 11 additional 777-9s to meet its fleet needs beyond the financial year ending in March 2026, the airline said in a statement.
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Better operating numbers and lower write-downs saw Singapore Airlines report a lower loss in the third quarter compared with the previous three months, the Straits Times reported. The carrier racked up a net loss of $142 million for the three months to Dec. 31 compared with a net profit of $315 in the same period in 2019. However, the latest figures were a significant improvement on the massive $2.34 billion loss in the July-September period. Those second-quarter results were also marked by huge impairment write-downs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even as the Covid-19 pandemic ravages the economy, the number of people who went bankrupt in Singapore last year sank to the lowest in five years, the Straits Times reported. Bankruptcy orders tumbled more than 40 per cent to 965 from 1,645 in 2019. Figures from the Law Ministry's Insolvency Office website showed more than 1,600 bankruptcy orders were made annually between 2016 and 2018. Experts said the drop in numbers could be due to the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Act and government support schemes which provided temporary relief for financially distressed individuals.
Creditors to struggling Singapore shipper Pacific International Lines Pte will vote Monday on a restructuring deal that involves a capital injection from a unit of Temasek Holdings Pte., Bloomberg News reported. It’s an important day for investors who oppose the plan like Singapore businessman Kuah Ann Thia, an unsecured noteholder – the most vulnerable in the bond world. He and other individual investors hold parts of PIL’s S$60 million security ($45 million) that came due in November but which the shipper hasn’t repaid.
Small and micro companies that have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and need to restructure their debts to stay viable or wind up their businesses can apply for support to do so under a new programme from Friday, the Straits Times reported. Applications for the Simplified Insolvency Programme (SIP) will be open until July 28 and the period may be extended if the need arises, the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) said on Thursday. The SIP consists of two separate programmes which eligible companies can apply for.