Singapore caught in the crossfire of powerful clans

A CLASH between two powerful clans, Indonesia's Widjaja family and the Batista brothers of Brazil, that has been playing out in Sao Paolo following a scandal that has rocked Latin America's largest nation, has germinated in Singapore and claimed one casualty - a US$500 million bond offering by Eldorado Brasil Celulose, a pulp maker owned by the warring sides.

Since the Singapore court blocked the sale of Eldorado's bonds to local investors in February this year, the fate of the bond issue by one of the world's largest wood pulp makers, whose output is used in everything from tissue and writing paper to cardboard, remains cloudy.

According to a newswire report out of Brazil, the court here had ordered the firm to clarify information on its offer document. This came days after a complaint was filed with the US securities regulator by a shareholder, reportedly Paper Excellence, a Netherlands-based company owned by Jackson Widjaja, alleging that bond investors had received "fundamentally material inaccuracies" ahead of the issue.