Hong Kong oil traders ‘unable to obtain finance’ after Singapore fraud scandal

News Snapshot:

Two Hong Kong-based oil traders say banks have reacted to the fraud scandal in Singapore’s commodities finance sector by restricting credit to the wider market, resulting in substantial financial losses. NewOcean Energy and Strong Petrochemical, two publicly listed companies, make the accusations in interim company filings covering the first half of 2020. Reporting net losses of around US$174mn, NewOcean says a “considerable number of banks had made an overnight decision of tightening the credit facilities granted to energy businesses” earlier in the year. That caused a squeeze on working capital for trading houses, “dooming them to misery”, it says. Strong...