Singapore makes a 'good start' on its debt restructuring ambitions

(Nov 23): Singapore has made “a good start” in its bid to become a debt restructuring hub in the region, with six workout cases filed before its courts after it adopted U.S. Chapter 11-like incentives in local company laws this year, a senior government official said.

Indonesian developer PT Bakrieland Development is set to complete its group restructuring after a plan by its unit BLD Investments was sanctioned by a local judge earlier this month in the first of such cases. Other publicly disclosed filings involved Attilan Group., TT International, EMAS Offshore and Nam Cheong.

“The fact that we have six filed this year alone after the amendment is an indication that people are certainly looking to try out this new restructuring regime,” Indranee Rajah, senior minister of state for law and finance, said in an interview Tuesday. The key to a good restructuring is for counsels, the parties and the court “to take a commercial approach to it,” she said.

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