How it all went south for Hin Leong

The collapse of Singapore's iconic oil trader Hin Leong Trading:

March 2020:

• Hin Leong Trading (HLT) totters on liquidity crunch after oil's historic crash caused by the pandemic and a price war between oil giants.

April 2020:

• Company founder OK Lim files for six-month debt moratorium to give HLT "breathing space" to work out some US$4b of debt owed to over 20 banks. Creditors baulk at the move.
• OK Lim reveals that the trading firm hid US$800m in futures losses in its books, stunning Singapore's tight-knit oil community. He gives up board and management posts.
• Singapore police confirms probe into HLT following reports that a creditor bank has lodged a report.
• Creditors come knocking, and financials worsen. OK Lim's son applies to place HLT under judicial management (JM). In late April, court grants company an interim JM (IJM) order.

May 2020:

• Fallout spills over to connected entity Ocean Tankers Pte Ltd (OTPL) - operator of some 160 vessels - which is also placed under IJM.

June 2020:

• The court-appointed managers from PwC spend the past months probing and unearthing "highly troubling" irregularities in HLT.
• Signs of fraying relations between interim judicial managers and the Lim family.
• Interim judicial managers issue preliminary report that HLT has "no reasonable prospect" of being rehabilitated, outline plan to rescue firm as an integrated oil trading platform.

July 2020:

• HLT is placed under JM.
• OCBC files to appoint judicial managers to another related entity XiHe Holdings, a giant fleet owner; it cites "strong distrust" amid fraud allegations at sister company. It is placed under IJM in August.

August 2020:

• OK Lim is charged with abetment of forgery for the purpose of cheating while separately, he and his two children face a S$19 million claim from the judicial managers.
• Suits come fast and furious - HLT's judicial managers sue the Lims for US$3.5 billion, alleging they breached fiduciary duties and engaged in fraud.

September 2020:

• OK Lim slapped with second charge of abetting HLT worker in forgery. He is out on bail of S$3 million.

October 2020:

• The Lim family applies to discharge the JM order and seek to wind up HLT.

January 2021:

• Judicial managers are granted a three-month extension on JM order which is set to expire on Feb 3.
• By late January, with no serious offers from potential investors, judicial managers file to wind up HLT.

March 8, 2021:

• It is all over - the Singapore court grants an order to wind up HLT.

READ MORE: End of road for Singapore's Hin Leong as court grants winding up order