Debt-hit Hin Leong Trading files for JM

PRESSED for time as it grapples with a debt pile of US$4 billion, Singapore's giant oil trader Hin Leong Trading (HLT) has pulled out its application to the court for a debt moratorium, and decided instead to go down the judicial management path, sources told The Business Times.

It is understood that PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) LLP, the accounting firm hired by the trader to help fix its dire financials and "protect and preserve its assets and cash", will be appointed as interim judicial manager.

The move has surprised some market watchers. Robson Lee, a Singapore-based partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said: "It puzzles me. There are very good reasons to stick to Section 211B (of the Companies Act that involves a moratorium order).