Swiber's provisional liquidator seeks trading suspension of company's shares

THE provisional liquidator of Swiber Holdings has sought a suspension in the trading of the Singapore-listed offshore engineering firm's shares.

The request was made by Cameron Duncan, who together with Muk Siew Peng, has been appointed as the provisional liquidators of Swiber.

Early Thursday, Swiber shocked market observers when it announced that it has filed an application to place the company under provisional liquidation. The winding-up application will be heard in court on Aug 19.

The company - once a darling in the Singapore oil and gas sector - also said its executive director and vice chairman Francis Wong, executive director and chief financial officer Leonard Tay and executive director Nitish Gupta have all resigned "to seek new opportunities".

This comes at a time when the company is facing letters of demand for about US$25.9 million in total, and is seeking legal advice.

On Monday, the company said it was facing just US$15.2 million in outstanding demand letters for which legal proceedings had not commenced, and US$4.76 million of outstanding demand letters that had not been paid off.

Shares of Swiber have been halted from trading since July 27. At the time of the halt, the shares were trading around S$0.109 each, down 0.2 Singapore cent, or 1.80 per cent.

Swiber came under some flak from market observers after it dismissed the termination of a US$21 million contract as "immaterial'', when its market value is slightly above S$50 million earlier this week.

A reader also questioned the circumstances leading to the termination of the contract, details of which remain undisclosed even though Swiber has said it is "disputing such termination".

Readers also took the firm to task over its tardy disclosure of a US$700 million project award, Swiber's first off West Africa.