Daniel Tan
陈世民
Director
Daniel is a Director and the Head of the firm’s Restructuring & Insolvency practice group.
Daniel’s main areas of practice are restructuring and insolvency, often acting in both formal court supervised and out of court restructurings. He regularly advises and represents corporate debtors, institutional creditors and turnaround professionals in special situations. His practice also encompasses corporate disputes and fraud, asset recovery, shareholder disputes and investigations.
He has earned widespread recognition across the major legal directories, including Who’s Who Legal, Chambers Asia-Pacific, The Legal 500, IFLR1000, and Asialaw. Most recently, he was recognized as a “Next Generation Partner” for Restructuring and Insolvency (2022-2024) and Dispute Resolution (2024) in The Legal 500, and as a “Rising Star Partner” in IFLR1000 (2023). Clients have praised him as a “fantastic operator,” and a Chambers Asia-Pacific (2023) client commented, “His experience puts him in a place to truly understand the demands and constraints of restructuring work.”
After graduating from the University of Sydney, Daniel spent time in the Restructuring and Insolvency practices of two leading law firms in Singapore. Daniel also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Pomona College, California and previously worked as a consultant in the Los Angeles and Singapore offices of a multinational engineering and environmental consultancy company.
Daniel is fluent in English and is conversant in Mandarin.
Admissions
- Advocate and Solicitor, Supreme Court of Singapore
Professional Experience
- Acting for GP Global Group, a UAE-based oil trader with offices across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, in its cross-border restructuring of debts in excess of US$1.3 billion. In obtaining a moratorium under section 64 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018, Daniel also obtained rare orders to set aside attachment orders over GP Global’s property, facilitating the wider group restructuring.
- Acted as Singapore counsel for the Liquidators of Founder Group (Hong Kong) Limited (In Liquidation) and Hong Kong JHC Co. Limited in connection with the winding up of the commodities trading arms of the Peking University Founder Group. The decision by the Court of Appeal in
Founder Group (Hong Kong) Limited (in liquidation) v Singapore JHC Co Pte Ltd
[2023] SGCA 40 streamlined the framework for determining whether and how the existence of an arbitration clause would affect both (i) the threshold question of standing and (ii) the substantive question of whether a winding up application should be granted.
- Acted for TA Corp, a leading property and construction player listed on the SGX, in the cross-border restructuring of the Group and its S$250 million in debt. The Group consists of 19 wholly-owned subsidiaries and 22 partially-owned subsidiaries located across Singapore, Cambodia and Thailand.
- Acting for New Silkroutes Group, a healthcare services provider listed on the Singapore Exchange, in the restructuring of its business. Daniel successfully assisted the group in (i) obtaining Court sanction of S$5.9 million in DIP rescue financing provided by its largest unsecured creditor, Canadian real estate investment group Ontario and (ii) obtaining sanction of the pre-packaged scheme of arrangement.
- Advising Asiya Investments, a Kuwaiti based investment fund, in the restructuring of the capital structure of one of its investments, a global leader in developing and running LNG and gas logistics and distribution solutions with operations in the Philippines, Singapore and India.
- Acted as Singapore counsel to the facility and security agent in relation to the cross-border enforcement of a US$470 million facility agreement granted to a leading Indian multinational conglomerate which owns, develops, operates and manages airports, major energy utilities, highways and urban infrastructure facilities.
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Acted for OCBC, as one of the main bank lenders, in the restructuring of Pacific International Lines (PIL) debts in excess of US$1 billion. PIL is one of the 10 largest container shipping lines in the world, with a fleet of nearly 100 vessels.
- Successfully acted for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in bringing an urgent application to place Zenrock Commodities Trading Pte Ltd (Zenrock) under Judicial Management. In a rare decision, the Court set aside Zenrock’s subsequent attempt to block the Judicial Management proceedings by obtaining an automatic moratorium under section 211B of the Companies Act.
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Successfully acted for OCBC in its application to place KS Energy Limited, a publicly listed company on the Singapore Exchange, and KS Drilling Pte Ltd under judicial management. The resulting decision in OCBC v KS Energy Limited and ors [2020] SGHC 198 provided much needed clarity on the rules and ambit of the court’s discretion to appoint interim judicial managers pending the determination of the judicial management application under section 92 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act (Act 40 of 2018).
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Acting for Shinhan Investment Corporation in its cross-border claim in fraud and conspiracy against multiple defendants arising from a US$14 million dollar private equity deal for the purchase of shares in WeWork Companies Inc.
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Acted for the co-defendant in a US$180 million fraud claim brought by JTrust Asia Pte Ltd (JTA), the Singapore subsidiary of J Trust Co. Ltd, a Japanese company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. JTA alleged that the defendants had engaged in an unlawful conspiracy to cause harm by way of multi-jurisdictional fraud and misappropriation. In parallel proceedings brought by another co-defendant, the Firm successfully resisted an injunction application and obtained a forum non conveniens stay in favour of Luxembourg proceedings.
- Acted for the co-defendant in a S$56 million fraud and conspiracy claim which arose out of a stock loan transaction that was secured against publicly listed shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and the Toronto Stock Exchange.
- Successfully acted for the security trustee in cross-border enforcement proceedings to enforce personal guarantees given by Videocon Industries Limited’s sponsors in respect of the company’s debt issuance of US$75,200,000 2.8% Convertible Bonds due in 2020.
- Acted for a high net-worth individual in resisting the enforcement of a facility deed and personal guarantee in claims in excess of US$20 million.
- Acted for the minority shareholders of a market leader in the construction and asphalt premix industry with assets in excess of S$150 million, in an action for minority oppression by the majority shareholders. Successfully acted for the minority shareholders in resisting the majority’s attempt at asserting that discounts for lack of control and free transferability ought to be applied to the valuation of the minority shareholders’ shares.
- Advising the co-founder of a multi-billion dollar private equity fund in connection with a cross-border stakeholder dispute spanning Singapore, Hong Kong and China.
- Acted for a leading alcohol distributor in its multi-million-dollar claim, which arose from the theft of goods that were stored at the warehouse of its logistics service provider.