Restructuring & Insolvency

Our lawyers have represented clients on contentious and non-contentious insolvencies and are equipped to deal with various aspects of business rescue, restructuring, and insolvency, including:

• Acting for and advising the joint and several liquidators of Hin Leong Trading (Pte) Ltd in one of the largest and most complex liquidations in Singapore. Prior to its winding up, Hin Leong Trading was one of Asia’s largest oil traders. The ongoing liquidation has a debt profile in excess of US$4 billion with other creditors’ claims amounting to over US$1 billion. These claims from major banking institutions are ongoing and involve complex, multi-party litigation and mediation with many of Singapore’s leading lawyers and insolvency professionals assisting.
• Acting for a Singapore chemicals company in a US$2.4 billion restructuring project involving a scheme of arrangement which resulted in landmark insolvency judgments in Re Chochubar Aromatics [2016] SGHC 279 and SK Engineering & Construction Co Ltd v Conchubar Aromatics Ltd [2017] SGCA 51.
• Acted for PDV Marina, one of the state-owned national oil companies of Venezuela in successfully resisting claims of over US$1.8 billion made by global creditors against its assets held in Singapore. These claims arose from various ICC and ICSID arbitration awards secured against the Venezuelan Republic and PDV Marina’s parent company, PDV SA, which these claimants sought to enforce against PDV Marina’s assets in Singapore by arguing that PDV Marina is merely an alter ego or extension of the state. This matter involved complex private international law and cross-border insolvency principles, and was reported in the Global Arbitration Review, with its ramifications widely discussed internationally.
• Acting for a Cayman Island venture capitalist fund in the recovery of various outstanding amounts arising from syndicated loan transactions totalling over US$50 million, which involved the enforcement of a share charge, obtaining summary judgments against the corporate and personal guarantors, resisting SIAC proceedings by the debtor, resisting various reliefs sought by the debtor during an application for ongoing US Chapter 11 proceedings be recognised under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency. This case was reported in Re Rooftop Group International Ltd and another (Triumphant Gold Ltd and another, non-parties) [2019] SGHC 280.
• Acted for Aaron Loh & Angela Ee of Ernst & Young Solutions LLP (and subsequently Cameron Duncan from KordaMentha) as liquidators of Griffin Real Estate Investment Holdings Ptd Ltd, in taking a range of enforcement actions against the former management (and related parties) to recover over S$50 million. This matter eventually culminated in the decisions of Griffin Real Estate Investment Holdings Pte Ltd (in liquidation) v ERC Unicampus Pte Ltd [2018] SGHC 273 and Griffin Real Estate Investment Holdings Pte Ltd (in liquidation) v ERC Unicampus Pte Ltd and another appeal [2019] SGCA 57.
• Acting for and advising BlackRock and Ares SSG (who act through their security agent, Madison Pacific Trust Limited) in respect of a US$50 million loan facility given to Take Solutions Singapore (a majority shareholder of the Indian List Co, Take Solutions India). Providence Law is advising on various cross-border restructuring aspects and acted for the lenders in an application to place Take Solutions Singapore into judicial management.
• Acting for the BVI liquidators of Six Capital Investments Limited in various recovery actions with respect to a debt of over US$143 million and in seeking and obtaining recognition of the BVI winding up proceedings in Singapore under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency.
• Applied for recognition of Malaysian winding-up proceedings as a foreign main proceeding under the UNCITRAL Model Law and for various Singapore proceedings be stayed. This culminated in the Singapore Court of Appeal issuing a landmark decision in United Securities Sdn Bhd v United Overseas Bank Ltd [2021] SGCA 78, one of the first Singapore-reported decisions on the interpretation of Article 20 of the UNCITRAL Model Law, which had just been received into Singapore law.
• Acted for Agritrade Resources Limited, an entity listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, in various recovery actions in Singapore, India and Hong Kong, as well as in a global debt restructuring exercise of over S$450 million across the courts in Bermuda, Hong Kong and Singapore.
• Acted for liquidators from a leading audit firm in a members’ voluntary winding up of a group of companies with assets of approximately S$302 million comprising, inter alia, real estate, shares and antiques.
• Acting for a major Chinese bank in a high profile cross-border liquidation of a Singapore mainboard-listed company with over S$297 million in debts.
• Acted for an Indonesian businessman in the restructuring of his personal debts amounting to approximately US$240 million through a voluntary arrangement proposed pursuant to the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018.
• Acting for a prominent company and its directors in scheme of arrangement and individual voluntary arrangement proceedings relating to the restructuring and liquidation of the company’s pre-fabrication business involving debts of over S$100 million and the sale of a specialized integrated plant.
• Acted for COB Technology Pte Ltd on a scheme of arrangement to restructure approximately S$94 million of the company’s debt.
• Acting for and advising The Working Capitol Group, a group well-known in the property management industry in Singapore, in a debt restructuring exercise involving the evolving co-working space industry in Singapore. This restructuring further features a novel debt consolidation exercise of the Group’s debts amounting to approximately S$48 million and a pre-packed scheme proposed under Section 71 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018. Providence Law works together with insolvency professionals from Quantuma on this matter.