DBS applies for Sen Yue and subsidiary to be placed under judicial management

SEN Yue Holdings on Wednesday said that DBS, its bank creditor, has applied to the High Court for the waste-management group and its subsidiary to be placed under judicial management.

The subsidiary, SMC Industrial (SMCI), owes DBS around S$5.9 million and has about US$9 million outstanding, plus all accrued interest and legal costs on an indemnity basis. In January, it received a letter of demand from DBS, which had recalled banking facilities on the grounds of default.

The lender had demanded that the sums be paid in three weeks, failing which SMCI would be liable to be compulsorily wound up.

A pre-trial conference has been fixed on March 18 for the applications for judicial management. Sen Yue said that it is reviewing the applications with SMCI, and taking legal advice on their "proposed courses of action".

Sen Yue and SMCI are facing other woes: Last October, SP PowerAssets, another creditor, sent a second letter of demand to SMCI to pay an aggregate balance of close to S$7.5 million and any accrued interest for late payment of this amount.

Sen Yue and SMCI are also involved in an ongoing probe by the Commercial Affairs Department, with the former's executive chairman Koh Mia Seng suspended from all executive functions.

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Sen Yue called for a trading halt at the end of April last year, and converted this to a trading suspension the following month. Its shares last traded at 2.2 Singapore cents on April 27, 2020.