No Signboard and units’ moratorium requests to be heard in court on May 26

THE Singapore High Court will hear the moratorium requests by debt-laden No Signboard Holdings and 2 of its subsidiaries on May 26 at 2.30 pm, according to notices in the government’s official gazette.

On Apr 29, the embattled restaurant operator and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, NSB Hotpot and NSB Restaurants, applied for moratorium relief spanning 6 months, under Section 64 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act.

No Signboard had said in its Apr 29 bourse filing that the Catalist-listed company was in the midst of negotiations with third parties as part of its efforts to restructure its liabilities.

The gazette notices, published on Friday (May 13) evening, said that Justice Pang Khang Chau will hear the 3 applications.

The trio is seeking court orders that no resolution shall be passed to wind up the companies and that no legal process shall be commenced or continued against any property of the applicants, among other things.

Specifically in No Signboard’s application, it has requested that OCBC, which is the creditor of S$3 million under a temporary bridging loan facility extended to the company in April 2020, be excluded from the terms of the moratorium order, the gazette notices stated.

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According to the group’s latest annual report, NSB Restaurants operates quick-serve restaurants, and fully owns Hawker QSR and NSB-Crab Factory. Meanwhile, NSB Hotpot comes under the group’s franchise brand operator arm, NSB Global Franchise Management.

Food and beverage brands under the group include No Signboard Seafood, Little Sheep Hotpot, and Mom’s Touch Chicken and Burger. It also had a loss-making beer business.

Shares of No Signboard : 1G6 0% have been suspended from trading since Jan 24, 2022.