Hyflux gets 7 bids in second stage of investor process

TROUBLED water-treatment company Hyflux has received seven bids in the second stage of the investor process, judicial managers from Borrelli Walsh told the bourse in a regulatory update on Wednesday.

Of the seven, one involves an investment of the entire Hyflux Group while another is for the purchase of substantially all of Hyflux Group's assets, excluding the shares in Hyflux or Hydrochem. The remaining five bids are for individual assets.

The judicial managers are now in negotiations with the investors that have submitted binding offers. They had earlier asked for their term of office to be extended by 60 days, until July 14, in a court application filed on April 30. This is to "allow sufficient time to determine whether a potential restructuring of Hyflux Group is possible", they said in the filing.

On the Singapore Exchange's queries on the settlement agreement between Hyflux and SM Investments (SMI), the judicial managers said that a sum of S$750,000 from the deposit of S$38.9 million was received by Hyflux and the balance was returned to SMI.

Hyflux, which went under judicial management last November after more than two years of debt restructuring, had sued former suitor SMI - a tie-up between Indonesia's Salim Group and Medco Group - over a deposit of S$38.9 million.

In a regulatory filing on May 3, the judicial managers told the bourse that Hyflux and SMI had agreed to "fully and finally resolve, settle and discontinue the suit" without any admission of liability, under an agreement from April 7, the judicial managers said in their latest update.

Trading in Hyflux securities has been suspended since May 2018.

READ MORE: Hyflux has at least seven non-binding offers as cash runs out