HSBC has lodged papers in Singapore aiming to take oil trader ZenRock Commodities Trading into judicial management, according to several media reports.
The UK bank's effort to force court restructuring of the company, which has a Singapore-led chartering desk and is involved in marine fuel trades, comes as the city state's trading sector continues to reel from the collapse of Hin Leong Trading last month.
HSBC aims to put ZenRock under management of accountancy giant KMG during a court-supervised effort to reach a restructuring deal for the company.
TradeWinds has requested comment from ZenRock, and the company could not be reached by Reuters or the Financial Times.
Sources with knowledge of the situation told Singapore's Straits Times that the company is operational and is negotiating a restructuring with other banks.
In addition to HSBC, ZenRock's lenders include Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, Natixis, Credit Suisse and Citigroup, the newspaper reported. The company reported $6.15bn in revenue in 2018, according to Reuters.
There are few public details of ZenRock's shipping links. Its chartering desk is led by Kurt Miao, a former assistant manager for chartering at BW Group.
The company has occasionally chartered tankers and LPG carriers in spot trade but was not known to be a major player in any particular segment, according to brokers.
“They are an unknown entity in the large crude tanker markets for many owners … more of a player on small CPP [clean petroleum products] markets,” one broking source said.
Clarksons data showed ZenRock was involved in the East of Suez VLGC trade in December and January, fixing the 79,329-cbm Vega Song (built 2018) and 83,277-cbm Aquamarine Progress (built 2010) on voyage charters.
With offices in Switzerland and China, the company also has a fuel oil team.
The company also bought very low-sulphur fuel oil in Singapore and shipped the IMO 2020-compliant cargoes to China, according to Argus Media.
Company president Xiu Chun, a former executive at Chinese chartering giant Unipec, has touted the IMO 2020 sulphur cap on shipping fuel as a focus for the trader.
"IMO 2020 will affect the entire oil supply chain, from producers and refiners to shipowners and end users alike," he said in a message on the company website. "However, at ZenRock, we view challenges like this as opportunities."
