Ezra Holdings Ltd, a Singapore-listed oil field services group, yesterday filed for bankruptcy in the US after weeks of facing hostile actions from creditors at home and abroad as it struggles to recover from a slump in oil prices over the past three years.
The firm filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, it said in a stock exchange filing.
Ezra is to hold an informal meeting as soon as “reasonably practicable” to update and provide further information on the Chapter 11 filing to holders of its debt, it said in a separate statement.
“The Ezra Chapter 11 filing is intended to optimize the scope and extent of the restructuring options available and to protect the interests of all stakeholders of the company, including its creditors and shareholders, from hostile actions that could harm the company and its stakeholders by diminishing the group’s value,” the statement said.
Ezra’s shares, down 78 percent this year, have been suspended from trading since Wednesday last week. The fallout might spread to other sectors related to the offshore and marine services company.
“Offshore and marine companies and banks would be negatively affected by this development. No one knows if they have fully provided for Ezra,” UOB Kay Hian Pte Ltd (大華繼顯) Singapore-based analyst Foo Zhiwei said by telephone after the filing was released. “There would be a knee-jerk reaction in the shares of Ezra and related sectors.”
Ezra last published its earnings in November last year, when losses widened to US$339.6 million for the quarter ended on Aug. 31, from US$7.8 million a year earlier.
It listed about US$623 million of total assets and US$1.51 billion of total liabilities.
The group has not disclosed earnings for the quarter ended on Nov. 30 last year. It has requested a time extension while it seeks to consolidate funding requirements.
The latest filing adds to the troubles faced by offshore oil and gas services companies in Singapore whose contracts have been pushed back or canceled as a slide in crude prices forced explorers to cut spending.
Swiber Holdings Ltd and Swissco Holdings Ltd won court approval to reorganize their debt, while others like Ezion Holdings Ltd and KrisEnergy Ltd sought and won forbearance from creditors and lenders.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last