Hin Leong Trading's judicial managers given more time to restructure firm
Singapore
THE Singapore High Court on Thursday granted a three-month extension on the judicial management order to restructure Singapore's troubled oil trader Hin Leong Trading (HLT) subject to certain conditions, according to sources.
This follows an application by HLT's JMs for more time as the JM order that was granted beginning August last year is set to expire on Feb 3, 2021.
Thursday's hearing before High Court Justice Kannan Ramesh also included two other applications by the Lim family of Hin Leong Group, including its founder Lim Oon Kuin, who are seeking to discharge both the JMs of HLT and Ocean Tankers Pte Ltd (OTPL), its troubled sister company and fleet manager. The Lim family is represented by Davinder Singh Chambers LLC.
The Business Times understands that the hearing on the matter was adjourned.
HLT's JMs are Goh Thien Phong and Chan Kheng Tek of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) while the JMs of its sister company, OTPL are Ernst & Young's Angela Ee and Purandar Rao.
It was reported that HLT's court-appointed managers from PwC applied last month to freeze assets, shares and funds held by Mr Lim, better known as OK Lim and his two children as part of their efforts to restructure and recoup some US$4 billion debt owed to some 20 banks.
The application by the managers was made on the basis of a real risk of asset dissipation, even as they were making progress with the sale of assets.
HTL's JMs have been in ongoing talks with interested parties and remarked in a June report last year that there were investors who were interested to explore equity injection into the Hin Leong Group as an integrated downstream trading platform.
In December, Gulf Oil International, a unit of Indian conglomerate Hinduja group, said it will acquire certain assets including a a storage tank farm and a terminal facility from OTPL.
The assets, located in the Tuas area of Singapore, will continue to operate as a going concern after the acquisition, said Gulf Oil, adding that the agreement was subject to closing conditions.
The troubles at Singapore's iconic oil empire led by Mr Lim had stunned the tight-knit oil and shipping milieu last year following a historic crash in oil prices on the back of a demand shock wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic which was worsened by an price war between two oil majors.
The fallout deepened after it emerged that HLT hid hefty losses incurred from futures trading in its books and later, fraud allegations against the Lims by the court-appointed managers of HLT.
