Rajah & Tann Singapore is advising the interim judicial managers, judicial managers, and liquidators, of the S.A.M. Trade group of companies, (comprising Samtrade FX Limited and its related entities) which are involved in an online trading platform business operating under the trade name “S.A.M. Trade”.
We successfully argued before the Singapore High Court, who held that section 91(10) of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 allows the Court to place a company under judicial management (notwithstanding that the objects of judicial management could not be achieved) for the limited purpose of enabling the judicial managers to apply to wind up the company. In delivering its judgment, the High Court placed the entities under judicial management pursuant to the public interest ground, which is rarely invoked.
As solicitors for the liquidators of the Samtrade Companies, we also assist the liquidators in tracing and recovering the cross-border assets of the S.A.M. Trade online trading platform business for the benefit of S.A.M. Trade’s creditors, especially in jurisdictions including Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Of the Samtrade Companies which applied for judicial management (with interim judicial managers appointed) in Singapore, three of them are foreign entities. In this regard, the Singapore insolvency regime allows for foreign companies to apply to be placed into judicial management in Singapore if certain criteria are met, in particular, if they have a substantial connection with Singapore.
We assisted the judicial managers in applying to place the Samtrade Companies in liquidation. This application involved a novel issue of Singapore insolvency law, as the interim judicial managers had formed the view that the objectives of judicial management were not capable of being achieved and that the Samtrade Companies should be placed in liquidation. However, it was unclear whether it was appropriate for interim judicial managers to apply to wind up the Samtrade Companies.
The S.A.M. Trade online trading platform business involved the online electronic trading of “contracts for differences” in foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, commodities and indices. It had approximately 160,000 user accounts (i.e. potentially 160,000 creditors) and an average of approximately 2 million trades per month.
The matter is led by Partners Patrick Ang, Raelene Pereira and Ho Zi Wei.
Press coverage:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/samtrade-fx-online-trading-police-mas-investigate-2412296
