In a market first, the Singapore High Court recently ordered the compulsory appointment of a Chief Restructuring Officer ("CRO") to steer troubled commodities trader Antanium Resources Pte Ltd ("Antanium") forward in a debtor-in-possession process that has been in place since December 2020.1 In its orders, the Court also granted the CRO extensive powers with a view to progressing Antanium's restructuring and promoting transparency with its creditors. Ashurst ADTLaw is advising a creditor in Antanium's restructuring.
Whilst common in the US, UK and European markets, the appointment of a CRO is still relatively rare (though not unheard of) in the Asian restructuring market. Experience in the US, the UK and Europe demonstrates that a CRO's appointment can promote transparency and re-balance stakeholder dynamics while at the same time keeping existing management in place. Viewed in this light, the CRO can bring a distinctive benefit through more consensual negotiations and disclosures of information that tend to be crucial in debtor-in-possession processes. The fact that the Singapore Court has ordered a CRO's appointment despite the absence of any statutory framework for such a role should be commended and demonstrates a judicial openness to out-of-the-box solutions to common restructuring problems.
The Court's latest orders in Antanium also add to a range of decisions in recent years (both reported and unreported) on first-to-market applications of rescue financing,2 pre-packaged schemes, and lock-up agreements.3 This development signals yet more willingness on the part of the Singapore courts to advance the full suite of tools available in the Singapore restructuring playbook.
Please feel free to reach out to any of your Ashurst ADTLaw contacts to discuss this and other exciting developments in the Singapore restructuring market.
Authors: Rob Child, Jean Woo, Karan Puri and Lorraine Koh
1. HC/OS 1285/2020.
2. See, for example, Re Design Studio Group Ltd [2020] SGHC 148, on the first "roll-up" rescue financing to be approved in Singapore; Re Kobian Pte Ltd (HC/OS 1269/2020), unreported at the time of writing, on the possibility that the court may dismiss an application for moratorium protection if it considers that the intended compromise is not "feasible" for the purposes of section 64 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018.
3. See Re Brightoil Petroleum (S'pore) Pte Ltd [2022] SGHC 35, in which the court allowed a pre-packaged scheme of arrangement relying on lock-up agreements to secure creditor support for the scheme. A summary of the Court's decision can be found here.
