SINGAPORE’S High Court on Friday (Apr 5) issued a winding-up order to Singapore-listed offshore and marine player Falcon Energy Group, said the lawyers representing AmBank, more than five years after the company suspended the trading of its shares on the back of a debt overhaul.
Falcon Energy’s case was presided over by Justice Vinodh Coomaraswamy. AmBank, which is one of the company’s principal lenders, was represented by Hariz Lee of Joseph Tan Jude Benny, while Falcon Energy was represented by Anglo Law Chambers.
AmBank filed a winding-up order against Falcon Energy on Aug 25, 2021. Since then, both parties have been fighting it out in court, with Falcon Energy calling for the court to give it more time to restructure and AmBank putting pressure on it to either repay its debts to its creditors or wind up.
The Business Times understands that Justice Coomaraswamy ordered Falcon Energy to wind up after the company had allowed the moratorium that was previously granted by the court to lapse.
This was despite the company being reminded by the court on Mar 13 to file any extension application in sufficient time for it to be heard ahead of the winding-up hearing.
According to a Mar 27 affidavit seen by BT, one of Falcon Energy’s directors – Tan Sooh Whye – asked the court for the moratorium to be extended by two more months.
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Tan said the company faced difficulty in preparing the intended scheme of arrangement to be proposed to creditors, as well as the definitive agreements for the company’s proposed private placements, due to “cash-flow constraints”.
She argued that the company, in particular its marine division, is not currently trading as a majority of the group’s fleet of offshore support vessels have been sold. The only cash flow into the company has been monthly injections of various amounts from its directors, she added.
In written submissions filed by lawyers representing AmBank on Dec 13 last year, it was noted that Falcon Energy has attempted to restructure itself three times.
In response to the company’s request for the first extension of the moratorium, AmBank’s lawyers opposed the application as they argued it was “not made in good faith”. They noted Falcon Energy’s director Tan Pong Tyea was the white knight investor of the company, and no other details of the purported investment had surfaced.
AmBank’s lawyers also flagged the lack of particulars pertaining to the identity of Falcon Energy’s white knight investors, as well as an “increasing disclosure” of unsecured creditors and the lack of future revenue.
