Singapore

Holders of senior debt from Singapore's banks will have reason to breathe easy if the Monetary Authority of Singapore implements proposals to limit its statutory bail-in framework to subordinated debt, Reuters reported. The proposal, part of a set of proposed enhancements to the bank resolution regime, will turn Singapore into one of the most investor-friendly nations for senior bank debt, as opposed to the approach favoured in Europe and elsewhere.

Things have gone further south for Jones the Grocer Singapore (JTG), three months after the gourmet grocer from Down Under assured that it was business as usual, The Straits Times reported. The Singapore arm of the Louis Vuitton-backed Australian gourmet cafe and retail chain has been placed under judicial management, and its assets are now up for public sale.

A second dry cargo shipper has filed for bankruptcy following a collapse in freight rates that has forced many companies to idle vessels used to haul iron ore, coal and grain rather than hire out the ships at a loss, Reuters reported. Weaker demand from China and an oversupply of ships has led to the worst industry downturn in 30 years, pushing the Baltic dry index - the industry benchmark for freight rates - to an all-time low. China's Winland Ocean Shipping Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on Feb.

OW Tanker, a unit of bankrupt OW Bunker and owner of its marine fuel supply ships, has been taken over by a newly-created company, the fleet manager told Reuters on Wednesday. OW Bunker, the largest ship fuel supplier in the world, collapsed earlier this month after it said it had lost almost $300 million in hedging losses and unauthorised credit lines given in Singapore. Henrik Pedersen said the takeover by Alba Tanker ApS, which has the trustees of the bankrupt company on its board, is part of the process of securing assets for the estate.

The Singapore arm of bankrupt Danish shipping fuel trader OW Bunker will meet with its liquidator KPMG in early December to discuss the firm's outstanding debt, which totals almost $1.5 billion globally, Reuters reported. OW Bunker, a leading supplier of marine fuel oil known as "bunker", filed for bankruptcy in Denmark earlier this month after it revealed losses of at least $125 million at one of its Singapore-based subsidiaries Dynamic Oil Trading, sending the bunker fuel market into turmoil.

The bankruptcy filing of a giant shipping-fuel supplier has sent shock waves through Singapore, one of the world’s busiest ports, with companies in the city bracing for a number of payment defaults and worries over a potential cash crunch, The Wall Street Journal reported. Small buyers and sellers of shipping fuel, also known as bunker fuel, are expected to be hit the most in Singapore, where the industry is worth $20 billion to $25 billion in sales a year. The scare has also led to higher fuel prices and panic buying in other Asian ports and the Middle East.

A flurry of firms have filed lawsuits against the Singapore units of bankrupt Danish shipping fuel trader OW Bunker, with claims totalling more than S$5 million, and traders say this is likely just the beginning of a wave of court actions. Court documents seen by Reuters showed that the overall amount of claims made against OW Bunker Far East and Dynamic Oil Trading, both Singapore-based subsidiaries of the Danish firm, over unpaid supplies now total around S$5.3 million ($4.11 million) made by nearly half a dozen companies.

A creditor of bankrupt OW Bunker is preparing a lawsuit in Singapore seeking to reclaim its money, court documents showed, as the fallout from the collapse of the world's largest marine fuel supplier begins to ripple through the sector, Reuters reported. In a separate case, court documents showed a second ship fuel company, Vanguard Energy Pte Ltd, filed for bankruptcy in the city state on Oct. 29, a week before OW Bunker said it had been driven to insolvency by suspected fraud at its Singapore trading unit.

As Asian countries roll out Basel III frameworks for their banks, the CEO of Singapore's biggest lender has warned that the more stringent bank capital rules for the region's already well-capitalised lenders may hurt economic growth in the region, Reuters reported. "Asia's banking system is already strong as (banks) generally emerged unscathed from the global financial crisis. If the new rules try to make it super strong, what gives is the capacity of the banks to provide credit," said Piyush Gupta, CEO at DBS.

Singapore’s home prices declined for a fourth consecutive quarter, the longest losing streak in five years, as tighter mortgage measures cooled demand in Asia’s second-most expensive housing market, Bloomberg News reported. An index tracking private residential prices fell 0.6 percent to 208.1 points in the three months ended Sept. 30, following a 1 percent decline in the previous three-month period, according to preliminary data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority today. The decline matched the losing streak ended June 2009, the data showed.