Hin Leong Trading was a

commodity trading A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products. The primary sector includes agricultural products, energy products, and metals. Soft commodities may be perishable and harvested, w ...

corporation registered and headquartered in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

that was founded in 1963 by Lim Oon Kuin. One of Singapore's largest independent oil traders, the firm collapsed in 2020 amid allegations of $800 million in undisclosed losses. Hin Leong filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2020.

Operations

In December 2010, Hin Leong announced plans to build Singapore's fourth oil refinery. In 2014, the company announced plans to file for an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO) but cancelled those plans by the end of the same year.

Bankruptcy and criminal conviction

When the outbreak of

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the Novel coronavirus, provisional nam ...

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

was first announced, Lim believed that the Chinese government would effectively contain it and therefore made the "quintessential Hin Leong play" of betting that oil prices would rise as a result of a recovering demand for oil. However, as the coronavirus crisis worsened into a pandemic and amidst plunging crude oil prices, the company faced pressure to make partial loan repayments amounting to billions of dollars; despite selling off oil pledged as collateral, the company was still unable to raise enough money to pay down its loans. In a meeting with its lenders, Lim revealed that the company had written off $800 million in

futures trading In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The item tr ...

losses, although it had declared a revenue of $20 billion and a net income of close to $80 million in the 2019 financial year. The company owes $3.85 billion to 23 lenders, with its largest debt, $600 million, owed to

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

. Singapore's three largest banks also faced significant debt exposure to Hin Leong; UOB was owed $100 million, whereas OCBC and

DBS Bank DBS Bank Limited is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the Marina Bay Financial Centre in the Marina Bay district of Singapore. The bank was previously known as The Development Bank of Si ...

had exposures of $200 million and $290 million respectively. Having initially filed for bankruptcy protection under Section 211B of Singapore's Companies Act with the

High Court of Singapore The High Court of Singapore is the lower division of the Supreme Court of Singapore, the upper division being the Court of Appeal of Singapore, Court of Appeal. The High Court consists of the Chief Justice of Singapore, chief justice and the ju ...

on 17 April 2020, Hin Leong subsequently sought for "judicial management" under independent accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which would oversee the restructuring of Hin Leong's debt. The bid was approved on 27 April. Lim resigned from Hin Leong on 17 April 2020, while stating that he wished for his children to remain as directors of the company. On 21 April, the

Singapore Police Force The Singapore Police Force (SPF) is the national and principal Police, law enforcement agency responsible for the prevention of crime and law enforcement in the Republic of Singapore. It is the country's lead agency against organised crime; hum ...

confirmed that an investigation of Hin Leong was underway. Four months later, Lim was charged with forgery, on 14 August. In a 2020 joint statement, the

Monetary Authority of Singapore The Monetary Authority of Singapore or (MAS), is the central bank and financial regulatory authority of Singapore. It administers the various statutes pertaining to money, banking, insurance, securities and the financial sector in general, as ...

(MAS),

Enterprise Singapore Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) is a government board formed on 1 April 2018 to support the development of Singapore's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), upgrade their capabilities, foster innovation, support transformation, and pro ...

(ESG) and the

Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport of the Government of Singapore. History The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) was established on 2 February 1996 by the MPA A ...

(MPA) said that they were also "closely monitoring developments related to the firm and the broader oil trading and bunkering sectors". Singapore filed 105 additional charges against Lim in June 2024. In September 2024, Lim agreed to pay about $3.59 billion to his company liquidators and creditor HSBC; he and his children, Evan Lim Chee Meng and Lim Huey Ching, will also each file for personal bankruptcy. On 18 November 2024, Lim Oon Kuin was sentenced to 17 years and 6 months of jail for three charges of cheating and forgery. The prosecutors described the case as “one of the most serious cases of trade financing fraud that have ever been prosecuted in Singapore”.

References

{{Authority control 1963 establishments in Singapore Oil traders Singaporean companies established in 1963 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1963 Energy companies of Singapore