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.

Beleaguered water treatment firm Hyflux has come under judicial management (JM) after a High Court ruling yesterday, following a marathon debt restructuring effort that has yet to put money on the table for creditors, The Straits Times reported. Mr Hamish Alexander Christie and Mr Patrick Bance of Borrelli Walsh, the restructuring firm advising the unsecured working group (UWG) of 19 banks that hold more than $931 million of Hyflux debt - were appointed the judicial managers and took over the firm's operations yesterday.

The Singapore High Court has granted leave for debt-ridden KrisEnergy to convene a meeting of its scheme creditors within three months from Nov 16, the Business Times reported. The mainboard-listed upstream oil and gas firm's debt moratorium has also been extended again, this time to Jan 16, 2021. It was first granted in September last year.

Recent debt restructuring cases underscore Singapore's position as a regional insolvency hub, with the latest being a note holders' go-ahead last week for a Jakarta-based conglomerate's scheme to restructure US$231 million (S$311 million) of secured notes due next year, The Straits Times reported. The note holders, who are a class of creditors of PT MNC Investama holding at least 75 per cent value of the claims, voted last Thursday (Nov 5) in favour of the "pre-packaged" scheme of arrangement.

Two debt restructuring schemes have been introduced to help distressed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore, providing support to those facing challenges amid the Covid-19 crisis, The Straits Times reported. The Sole Proprietors and Partnerships Scheme and the Extended Support Scheme - Customised allow SMEs to restructure their credit facilities and debts owed to multiple creditors.

The court-appointed manager for Ocean Tankers Pte Ltd has applied to the Singapore court to return most of the ships the company manages to the shipowners, as cash is running low and Ocean Tankers will not be able to maintain the fleet, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, Reuters reported. If successful, the move will allow Ocean Tankers, the chartering arm of embattled oil trader Hin Leong Pte Ltd, to resume its cash-generating business such as its oil lubricants business, for which a sales process is underway, the sources said.

Singapore’s efforts to promote itself as a global restructuring hub have been hit by a court’s decision to grant a distressed water company an unprecedented string of extensions as it battles to avoid liquidation, the Financial Times reported. A court in the city-state said on Friday that the next hearing in the case of Hyflux would take place on November 16 following a decision on Wednesday to grant the water management group a 12th adjournment. The Singaporean company has become saddled with S$2.7bn ($2bn) in unsecured debt after years of soaring growth came to a halt.

Businesses across Singapore have been left scrambling to process payments for everything from hotel stays to telephone bills after the city-state’s regulator shut down the payment services of fraudulent German group Wirecard, the Financial Times reported. Cafés, restaurants, hotels and mobile network providers were left with no payment processing systems after the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the de facto central bank, late last month ordered Wirecard to cease payment services in the city-state. Some banks in Singapore had advised their clients to consider switching pay