of bonds by three years. This affected the
4.75% bonds that were originally due March
2017 (series 006) and the 5.35% bonds due
October 2018 (series 007). The outstanding
amount of series 006 is S$95m and that
of series 007 is S$47.5m after partial
redemptions were made in the past year.
› LIQUIDATORS GET LITIGATION FUNDING
Liquidators of two Singaporean subsidiaries
of Indonesian mobile phone retailer
TRIKOMSEL OKE scored a first in the city-
state’s legal history last Tuesday after the
Singapore High Court allowed them to use
funds provided by an independent third
party litigation funder.
Justice Chua Lee Ming ruled to allow
a funding agreement to be signed by
the liquidators and litigation funder IMF
Bentham to finance investigations and
potential claims related to Trikomsel, which
defaulted on S$215m of bonds in 2015.
The case will be the first time an
independent third party is allowed to
provide funding for legal action in an
insolvency case in Singapore, and will
bolster the country’s ambition to become a
regional dispute resolution hub.
“Justice Chua’s decision is an important
step forward in the interests of the Trikomsel
bondholders,” said Tom Glasgow, IMF
Bentham’s chief investment officer for Asia.
“It paves the way for Singapore’s
liquidators, judicial managers and
bankruptcy trustees to gain access to justice
using litigation funding in future cases for
the benefit of their creditors.”
The funding agreement will support
investigations and potential claims led by
KordaMentha’s Luke Furler and Cameron
Duncan, who were appointed by the court to
liquidate Trikomsel and Trikomsel Singapore.
Trikomsel, which defaulted on S$115m
of 5.25% 2016s and S$100m of 7.875%
2017s, and Trikomsel Singapore were
units of Indonesia’s Trikomsel Oke. They
ultimately loaned proceeds of the Singaporedollar bonds to the parent.
Although the debt has been converted
into shares, the liquidation of the two
Singapore units is not yet complete, for
reasons that have not been made public.EQUITY CAPITAL MARKETS
› OUE COMMERCIAL REIT PLANS RIGHTSOUE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST is
planning a S$588m (US$427m) rights issue
to finance a planned acquisition.
The company intends to sell 1.29bn new
units at S$0.456 apiece in a 83-for-100 ratio.
The rights price is at a 31% discount to
the pre-deal close of S$0.665.
Credit Suisse and OCBC are the joint lead
managers.
Sponsor OUE, which owns 56% of the
REIT, will subscribe to its full entitlement.
OUE Commercial REIT is buying OUE
Downtown from Alkas Realty, wholly
owned by OUE, for S$908m.› LUYE MEDICAL TO PRE-MARKET IPOHealthcare services provider LUYE MEDICAL
GROUP plans to start pre-marketing a
Singapore Exchange IPO of up to US$500m
towards the end of September, according
to a person with knowledge of the
transaction.
Luye Medical, part of Chinese
entrepreneur Liu Dianbo’s Luye Life
Sciences group, plans to open books in
October.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse
and UBS are the banks on the transaction.
Singapore-based Luye Medical runs 52
healthcare facilities in Australia, China,
Singapore, South Korea and New Zealand.
Luye Pharma, another Luye Life Sciences
subsidiary, was previously quoted in
Singapore before it delisted in 2012. Luye
Pharma listed in Hong Kong in 2014.
Fullerton Medical was the last healthcare
company to attempt a SGX listing in
2016, but had to pull its S$213m IPO after
anonymous complaints about the fee
structure of its business.TAIWAN
SYNDICATED LOANS
› TING HSIN UNIT RAISES NT$6.25BNTAIWAN STAR TELECOM, a unit of conglomerate
Ting Hsin International Group, has raised aAspial makes bondholder offer
Bonds Singapore issuer launches tender, exchange offer for bondsASPIAL has launched an offer for holders of
its 2018 and 2019 Singapore dollar bonds
to buy them for cash or exchange them for
new notes, just two months before one of the
bonds is due to mature.
It is offering to buy back any and all of
the S$74m (US$54m) 5.5% bonds due on
November 27 this year, and up to S$10m of
the S$123.5m 5.05% notes due June 12 2019.
The tender price is par for the 2018s and
99.9% of face value for the 2019s, with an
extra 10bp bonus payment for each series if
bondholders accept by September 20. The
offer ends on September 28.
The 2018s were quoted in the secondary
market at 5.4%, while the 2019s were below
par and yielding 5.7%.
Under the other option, bondholders can
exchange any and all of their 2018s and
2019s for new three-year notes with a coupon
of 6.25%. The notes will exchange at 100.5%
of face value.
Aspial Treasury will issue the new notes,
which will be guaranteed by Aspial, a
Singapore-based property developer which
owns a chain of jewellery stores.
Aspial and its subsidiaries hold S$11.5m of
the 2018 notes and S$3.5m of the 2019s.
The company said that it intended to use
revenues from its real estate business to
redeem the notes in order to improve its debt
position and reduce negative carry.
“My concern is that the company istelling us they want to reduce debt and
negative carry, but at the same time they are
incentivising bondholders to extend by three
years at a higher coupon,” said an investor.
“What is their intent?”
The investor estimated that Aspial would
need to pay 8.5% or higher to sell new three-
year bonds in the current market conditions.
In April, Aspial exchanged S$26m of its
2018 bonds for new three-year bonds priced
at 5.9%, concurrent with a S$24m new-
money issue.
“The exchange offer does not appear
compelling, noting that several higher-yield
developer credits are trading well in excess of
6% for similarly tenured three-year paper and
the previous tender to exchange to ASPSP
5.9% 2021s was not well-taken up,” wrote
Wong Hong Wei of OCBC’s credit research
team.
“For investors comfortable with Aspial,
ASPSP 5.25% 2020s look more attractive
with higher yield and shorter tenor. Following
this exercise, assuming S$74m of ASPSP ’18s
and S$10m of ASPSP ’19s are redeemed, debt
levels may fall to S$1.56bn.”
DBS is sole dealer manager for the offer
and the new issue.
Aspial had cash and cash equivalents of
S$194m at the end of June.
The company had not responded to
questions as of press time.
DANIEL STANTON