O&M sector's debt revamp has long way to go

WHEN Marco Polo Marine cobbled together a S$60 million financial rescue package in January, it buoyed hopes that the heavily indebted offshore and marine (O&M) sector could be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

This appears illusory; news broke a week ago that Otto Marine had filed for judicial management.

It is evident that embattled O&M players need more than just unequivocal support from their anchor shareholders to ride through the rest of this prolonged downturn.

In Otto Marine's case, what is clear from the outset is that its anchor shareholder and Malaysian tycoon, Yaw Chee Siew, does not wish to see the business fail.

In 2016, Mr Yaw forked out more than S$100 million to privatise Otto Marine. He offered 32 Singapore cents per share - a 39.13 per cent premium to the company's transacted price of 23 Singapore cents before a trading halt - to buy out the remaining shareholders. In addition, some S$70 million Singdollar notes w…