Swiber Applies for Judicial Management Instead of Liquidation

Singapore oilfield services company Swiber Holdings Ltd said on Friday it has applied to place itself under judicial management instead of liquidation.

 

Swiber shocked markets earlier this week by filing for liquidation, as it faced hundreds of million of dollars in debt and a decline in orders, becoming the largest local company to fall victim to the slump in oil prices.

 

Judicial management allows a financially-distressed company the room to return to financial health under the supervision of the Singapore Court rather than a more disruptive process of liquidation that reduces the chances of recouping the full value of debt for creditors.

 

"Today, the company and its subsidiary, Swiber Offshore Construction Pte Ltd (SOC), have taken out applications to place the Company and SOC under judicial management and interim judicial management," Swiber said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange.

 

"As a consequence, the company has applied to discharge the provisional liquidation order and to withdraw the winding up application."

 

Swiber also said there was an error in its earlier announcement that its Chief Finance Officer and three directors had resigned.


(Reporting by Jongwoo Cheon; Editing by Saeed Azhar and Alexander Smith)