Rich Singapore investors stuck as local bond restructuring drags

SINGAPORE (July 25): Keith Kueh was expecting Pacific Andes Resources Development Ltd. to pay back the company’s bonds last year so he could finance his son’s college bill and his own retirement. Now it’s 18 months after the Singapore-listed fishing company didn’t honor some obligations and he hasn’t gotten his money yet.

“For investors like myself, we are not portfolio managers who are managing other people’s money,” said Kueh, a founder at a tech startup. “This is our hard-earned money.”

Singapore is ranked the second most competitive economy globally by the World Economic Forum, and is actually faster than most other countries in resolving insolvencies involving assets of all kinds, according to the World Bank. But when it comes to the city’s bond market in particular, resolutions have been slower than in some other major markets, according to restructuring advisers.

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