Hyflux’s dispute with its rescuer deepens

Bloomberg

Embattled Singapore water treatment company Hyflux Ltd’s survival is looking shakier as disagreements with its rescuer deepen.
Hyflux said in a filing that it disputes certain assertions by SM Investments, the consortium of Indonesian businessmen that had agreed last year to take a majority stake in the firm.
At the same time, SM Investments is disagreeing with some terms of the restructuring plan put forward by Hyflux, the filing shows.
The disputes heighten the drama of the catastrophic slump of the once-vaunted water and power company. The case involves some 34,000 retail investors who stand to lose almost everything, and a desalination and power plant that cost S$1.1 billion and was heralded as one of the “national taps” for Singapore.
The cash-strapped company, founded by Olivia Lum, faces mounting pressure as mom and pop investors organise a protest in the city-state this weekend.
Trouble with the rescuer started bubbling up earlier this month when the Indonesian consortium SM Investments threatened to walk away from the debt restructuring agreement.
The consortium had said a default notice served by Singapore’s Public Utilities Board on Hyflux’s Tuaspring desalination and power plant on March 5 constitutes an event that undermined a debt plan and it may abandon the deal if the default isn’t remedied by April 1.
SM Investments is also disputing a payout to creditors under the agreement and has “asserted that it does not agree to the terms of the schemes proposed, in particular, the commercial term that an aggregate cash amount of S$272 million” will be used to fully settle the financial obligations in the restructuring agreement, Hyflux said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange.
Hyflux disputed the Indonesia consortium’s assertion that actions taken by the Public Utilities Board constitute events that would allow the group to walk away from the agreement.