ABN Amro Bank NV has become the latest lender to make a claim against a Singapore oil trading giant that filed for protection from creditors amid a plunge in oil prices.
The Dutch bank filed applications for charges related to irrevocable letters of credit tied to goods and documents of Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd (興隆貿易), filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority showed.
The Amsterdam-based lender is the second bank to file charges linked to Hin Leong, which owes almost US$4 billion to more than 20 Singaporean and international banks, including HSBC Holdings PLC, DBS Group Holdings Ltd and Standard Chartered PLC.
London-based HSBC has the most exposure to the oil trader, with about US$600 million, people familiar with the situation said.
Hin Leong, founded in 1963 by Chinese tycoon Lim Oon Kuin (林恩強), filed the application for a debt moratorium from Singapore’s High Court on Friday, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Lim Chee Meng (林志明), the only son of Lim Oon Kuin, said the Singapore-based company had suffered about US$800 million in losses from futures trading that were not reflected in its financial statements, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Lim Chee Meng said he was unaware of the losses suffered over some years and his father had instructed Hin Leong’s finance department to omit them from its financial statements, said people with knowledge of an e-mail sent on Friday by the shipping arm of Hin Leong, Ocean Tankers Pte Ltd (新加坡海洋油船), notifying recipient parties of proposed moratorium proceedings.
Lim Chee Meng said the company also sold some of the million of barrels of refined products it had used as collateral to secure loans from its banks, the people said.
As a result, the company faces a significant shortfall between the oil stocks it held and the inventories pledged to its banks. That potentially means huge losses for the banks that provided the merchant with billions in loans as the collateral they thought they have as a guarantee is not there.
ABN Amro did not specify the amount owed to the bank in the documents dated Friday. The charges covered include Hin Leong’s bills of landing, air waybills, cargo and warehouse receipts, as well as the goods shipped related to the bank’s credit.
An irrevocable letter of credit cannot be canceled or amended by the issuing bank without the agreement of the parties in the credit transaction.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
Industrial production expanded 22.31 percent annually last month to 107.51, as increases in demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove demand for locally-made chips and components. The manufacturing production index climbed 23.68 percent year-on-year to 108.37, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In the first four months of this year, industrial and manufacturing production indices expanded 14.31 percent and 15.22 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed. The growth momentum is to extend into this month, with the manufacturing production index expected to rise between 11 percent and 15.1 percent annually, Department of Statistics
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
RSS