The High Court of Hong Kong has dismissed a wind-up petition against Brightoil Petroleum as the trading house continues to make progress in its business restructuring.
In an exchange filing, Hong Kong-listed Brightoil said the court on Monday granted the dismissal of the petition filed by Petco Trading Labuan in May 2019.
Brightoil has struck a settlement deal on outstanding debts to Petco and other interested creditors in court proceedings, according to the filing, which did not provide further details.
Petco, the trading arm of Malaysian state giant Petronas, had petitioned to wind up Brightoil over debt totalling $25.7m, together with late payments and costs.
Later, Brightoil managed to adjourn the court hearing after reaching a settlement with Petco in August 2019.
Having been plagued by years of financial difficulties, the company was forced to sell its fleet of 14 tankers to improve cash reserves.
But Brightoil managed to secure a $362m refinancing package from state-linked China Huarong Overseas Investment at the end of 2019. Huarong also agreed to provide another $30m loan in May.
The financial aid has helped Brightoil settle its debts with several major creditors in the past few months.
In May, the company reached an agreement with Vietnam-owned trader Petrolimex over a debt of more than $30m that led to the bankruptcy of its founder, Sit Kwong Lam.
Sit, who was once a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, built up Brightoil from a bunker oil trader into a major player in Chinese oil distribution.
He had provided a personal guarantee of more than $30m for goods Brightoil bought in April 2018.
When failing to recover the debt, Petrolimex had secured a bankruptcy order from a Hong Kong court against Sit.
Sit was forced to resigned as chairman and chief executive when he was declared bankrupt, only to return one month later as a strategic advisor.
