Restructuring, Insolvency, and Bankruptcy
Restructuring, insolvency, and bankruptcy exercises are pivotal phases for debtor companies / individuals, their related group entities, employees and independent contractors, as well as external creditors. These exercises require strategic planning and long-term vision to ensure the financial and commercial viability of the subject matter companies. Our extensive experience in navigating through legal and commercial aspects of these processes complements our clients’ aims of securing maximum recovery and minimum losses for affected stakeholders.
We have represented and/or advised various key players including liquidators, judicial managers, creditors, and debtors. We also sit on the boards of various Committees of Inspection for insolvency-related proceedings before the Singapore Courts. Our approach focuses on practical recovery strategies, commercially-minded risk management, negotiations with affected stakeholders, and accountability for all transactions undertaken.
We regularly advise clients on asset protection and recovery efforts, commercial negotiations with stakeholders, and compliance with relevant legislation / regulations. We also represent the various stakeholders in the relevant legal proceedings before the Singapore Courts.
Notable Briefs
The claim is for goods supplied by our client (who supplies footwear to major departmental stores such as Macy’s in USA), against a subsidiary of the Li & Fung Group (which has more than 230 offices and distribution centres across 40 different markets globally). Our client was one of the largest unsecured creditors in the liquidation. We were also appointed as one of the few members in the Committee of Inspection alongside major institutional creditors like HSBC Bank USA.
The claim relates to our client’s provision of instrumentation and electrical engineering works for the main contractor’s construction of CapitaSpring Building (a 51-storey integrated development in Singapore’s Central Business District). The counterparty eventually entered liquidation proceedings where our client was one of the largest unsecured creditors, amongst a group of nearly 900 creditors.
Our client’s claim was for services provided in the Middle East worth nearly USD 300,000. The winding up order was obtained within barely two months from our engagement, after which we continued working with our client’s private liquidator to complete the liquidation process.
The claim arose from purchase of luxury residential property in New Zealand, where we assisted the developer in enforcing the New Zealand court order against the Singapore-resident buyer. As the buyer refused to satisfy the debt arising under the judgment, we swiftly obtained a bankruptcy order against the buyer within two months from commencing the bankruptcy application.
The claim arose from goods provided by our client to Sportslink (a Singapore-grown sports retail chain with nearly 30 years of operations and up to 35 outlets). We successfully recovered nearly SGD 1 million from the counterparty, just before they were wound up pursuant to an application brought by Adidas Singapore.
