Wei Meng Chan

Wei Meng has been involved in the following high-profile matters:

• Pacific Radiance Group - Advising the Pacific Radiance Group on its US$645 million debt restructuring. Pacific Radiance is listed on the Singapore Exchange and its subsidiaries are in the business of chartering and operating offshore vessels in Asia, Middle East, Africa, Australia and Latin America. The Pacific Radiance Group owns a fleet of more than 120 offshore vessels deployed across these regions.

• Brightoil Petroleum (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) Limited - Advised Brightoil Petroleum (Singapore) in its debt restructuring, and successfully obtained moratorium protection for Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) under the Companies Act to facilitate the debt restructuring of Brightoil Petroleum (Singapore), which is undertaken as part of the holistic US$1.9 billion debt restructuring of Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) and its subsidiaries over various jurisdictions including Singapore, Hong Kong, and the People’s Republic of China. BOPS successfully launched a pre-pack scheme of arrangement under section 71 of the Insolvency Restructuring and Dissolution Act and obtained more than 90% majority support of its creditors with lock-up agreements as a restructuring tool. This was the first reported Singapore decision that provided guidance and clarity on the usage of lock-up arrangements in debt restructuring in Singapore.

• Nam Cheong Limited - Advised Nam Cheong Limited (Nam Cheong) and its subsidiaries on a US$1.35 billion debt restructuring in 2017, including US$240 million bonds issued and listed on the Singapore Exchange. The matter is complex given the diverse nature and locations of the borrower’s businesses and assets and the restructuring is carried out via parallel and inter-conditional scheme of arrangement by Nam Cheong and schemes of arrangements by its key subsidiaries in Malaysia.

• Ezra Holdings Limited - Advised Ezra Holdings Limited on its US$1.49 billion cross-border debt restructuring involving a restructuring under the Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code which was to be followed by judicial management under Section 227 of the Singapore Companies Act. In 2018, the Singapore High Court approved Ezra Holdings’ application for a cross-border protocol between Singapore court and the US Bankruptcy Court in relation to its bankruptcy proceedings—one of the first restructuring which applied the cross-border protocol adopted by the Singapore Supreme Court under the Judicial Insolvency Network initiative introduced in October 2016.

• TT International Ltd - Advised the major shareholders-directors of the homegrown, mainboard-listed global electronics distributor, who had incurred significant personal debt of about S$68 million due to guarantees and undertakings granted to bank lenders to secure credit facilities for the company. In 2010, to protect the interest of the company and its stakeholders, he advised the shareholders-directors to file for bankruptcy before filing for statutory protection under the Bankruptcy Act in a proposed voluntary arrangement. These steps provided an avenue for the controlling shareholders-directors to resolve their personal debt and for the company to successfully implement a scheme of arrangement to restructure some S$500 million of debt which was sanctioned by the Singapore Courts and affirmed by the Singapore Court of Appeal in 2010.

• Wei Meng advised TT International on the second round of restructuring of its S$500 million debt obligations, including the debt obligations under the scheme of arrangement that was sanctioned by the Singapore Courts and affirmed by the Singapore Court of Appeal in October 2010. The second round of debt restructuring involves a new scheme of arrangement which is funded by a convertible loan of S$48 million from an investor. This was one of the first debt restructuring carried out by way of a pre-pack scheme of arrangement, a restructuring tool introduced by way of legislative amendments to the Singapore debt restructuring regime in 2017.

• Pacific Andes Resources Development Limited - Advised the SGX listed company, which is part of the Pacific Andes group, on its US$2.5 billion debt restructuring in 2016. The deal was awarded the Finance Deal of the Year (Restructuring and Insolvency) at The Asian Lawyer Asia Legal Awards 2017 and won the Asialaw Asia-Pacific Dispute Resolution Award 2017 – Matter of the Year at the Asialaw Asia-Pacific Dispute Resolution Summit 2017.

• Glory Wealth Shipping Pte Ltd - Advised the shareholders of Glory Wealth Shipping Pte Ltd, a Singapore incorporated company in the maritime industry, in 2016 on a US$1.1 billion work-out which resulted in a scheme of arrangement that was approved by the Singapore High Court. The issues included the recognition and enforcement of a Singapore Court sanctioned scheme of arrangement in Belgium.

• PT Berlian Laju Tanker Tbk - The debt restructuring of PT Berlian Laju Tanker Tbk has been one of the largest debt restructuring exercise in Indonesia in recent years. PT Berlian is a leading worldwide seaborne liquid cargo transportation specialist and one of the largest chemical tanker operators in the world. Its fleet of vessels comprises chemical tankers, oil tankers, gas tankers FSOs and FPSOs. The company is listed on both the Singapore and Indonesian stock exchanges. The total debt being restructured is estimated at over US$2 billion. The restructuring that started in 2012 involved the restructuring of the individual vessel holding subsidiary companies by way of a scheme of arrangement in Singapore, the restructuring of PT Berlian Laju Tanker Tbk by way of a PKPU process in Indonesia and the recognition and enforcement of the Indonesian restructuring by way of a Chapter 15 application in the United States. This deal has been awarded Asian-MENA Counsel: Deals of the Year – Honourable Mention and IFLR Asia Awards 2016: Restructuring Deal of the Year.

• Bumi Resources Tbk - Bumi Resources Tbk is a public company limited by shares and incorporated in Indonesia with a global presence in a total of 67 entities incorporated across various jurisdictions, including Indonesia, Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Seychelles and the Caymans Islands (Bumi Group). The total debt being restructured is estimated at over US$5.23 billion. The restructuring that started in 2014 included Singapore entities that were specifically incorporated by PT Bumi Resources Tbk as special purpose vehicles to raise funds for and on behalf of the Bumi Group, via the issue of USD700 million guaranteed senior secured notes due 2017 and USD300 million guaranteed senior secured notes due 2016 and USD375 million worth of bonds redeemable on 4 August 2014 respectively. This deal was awarded the Debt Market Deal of the Year (Premium) at Asian Legal Business SE Asia Law Awards 2018.

• OW Bunker Group - Advised ING Bank N.V. and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Singapore, who were the security agent of a syndicate of lenders to the OWB Bunker Group and the receivers for security assets relating to the Singapore entities of the OW Bunker Group respectively in 2015. The assets are valued at USD490 million and the OW Bunker Group is reported to be US$1.5 billion in debt.

• Fibrechem Technologies Limited - Assisted the special auditors in investigating the difficulties faced by the S-chip company and its auditors in finalising the audit of the group’s trade receivables and cash balances as at 31 December 2008. The investigation uncovered several financial and accounting irregularities, including the overstatement of net assets and cash balance by HK$382 million and HK$686 million, respectively, and a cash balance of HK$777 million that was not accounted for. It also found that Fibrechem’s subsidiaries in the People’s Republic of China had weak corporate cultures and inadequate respect for internal control measures.