Viking Offshore's S$4m share placement plan falls through

VIKING Offshore and Marine is mulling the next steps for its debt restructuring, now that a conditional placement agreement - related to a proposed placement of new shares in the company - has fallen through.

In a bourse filing on Thursday, the Catalist-listed firm said among the conditions precedent to the placement agreement was the approval of the proposed creditors' scheme - on terms acceptable to businessman Li Suet Man - by the company's key creditors.

Mr Li had set a Jan 6 deadline for the creditors to agree to the terms of the scheme. This deadline has now lapsed; no agreement was reached between him and two of the three key creditors of Viking, namely Luminor Pacific Fund 1 and Luminor Pacific Fund 2. The indicative scheme terms have thus been withdrawn, said the group.

The conditional placement agreement was entered into on Nov 13 last year with Mr Li, Blue Ocean Capital Partners, a company owned by the son of executive chairman Andy Lim, as well as Viking's chief executive Ng Yeau Chong.

The three investors were to subscribe for new shares equivalent to 65.25 per cent, 15.225 per cent and 6.525 per cent respectively, of the enlarged issued shares, after taking into account new shares to be issued to creditors as part of the proposed creditors scheme of arrangement.

From the three investors, a cash consideration of S$3 million, S$700,000 and S$300,000, was to be raised respectively.

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Viking said it is now considering its options for the "appropriate next steps" for debt restructuring, bearing in mind that its existing statutory moratoria will continue only until the hearing and determination of the extension applications fixed for Jan 14, or until further order of the General Division of the High Court.

Also, the adjourned hearing of the group's winding-up proceedings is fixed for Feb 19 and will proceed in the event that the existing statutory moratoria are not extended up to or beyond Feb 19 at the hearing of the extension applications, it said.

Viking is undergoing a court-supervised process to reorganise its liabilities, and has been granted moratoria against enforcement actions and legal proceedings by creditors against the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Viking Asset Management.

The group said it will provide further updates when appropriate. Its shares have been suspended from trading on the Singapore Exchange since June 14, 2019.