SINGAPORE: Hyflux has clarified that it has until Aug 26, instead of Aug 16, to ink a definitive agreement with United Arab Emirates utility firm Utico.
The debt-ridden water treatment firm made these clarifications late on Monday (Aug 5), three days after it said it had been given a two-week ultimatum by Utico.
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WongPartnership lawyer Manoj Sandrasegara, who represents Hyflux, had told the Singapore High Court on Aug 2 that Utico “will walk” if the home-grown company does not sign a “definitive agreement” with it by Aug 16.
This was confirmed by Utico’s chief executive Richard Menezes in an interview with reporters after the court hearing.
But in a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Monday, Hyflux said its potential white knight from the Middle East had changed its mind.
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“Following these news reports, Utico has since clarified to the company that its deadline for the company to enter into a definitive agreement with it falls on Aug 25, 2019, and not Aug 16, 2019, as Utico has taken into account the intervening public holidays in August,” the filing wrote.
Utico said last month that it would take an 88 per cent equity stake in Hyflux for S$300 million as equity and S$100 million as a shareholder loan.
It also said it intends to offer the cash equivalent of a 4 per cent stake in the enlarged Utico group, plus additional cash to the holders of Hyflux preference shares and perpetual securities.
Hyflux has had its debt moratorium extended five times since embarking on a court-supervised restructuring last May.
The former star company now has until Sep 30 to work out a rescue deal to meet billions in liabilities.
