Judicial managers of Lim Oon Kuin’s tanker owning company Xihe Holdings have lined up sales deals for two more of its LR2 aframax tankers.
The sales come as the liquidators of the Singaporean shipping and oil tycoon’s flagship trading company, Hin Leong Trading, obtained a global court order for the seizure of his assets together with those of his son and daughter.
Reported sold by brokers were the 108,900-dwt Ocean Crown (built 2007) and Ocean Taipan (built 2008).
The Ocean Taipan, which is laid up off Gibraltar with dry-docking due in June, was said to have gone to undisclosed interests for $17m.
The slightly older Ocean Crown, which some brokers believed had been sold to Vietnamese interests for $15.3m, is anchored off Singapore.
The pair are part of an ongoing sell-off of vessel assets owned by Xihe and affiliated tanker operator Ocean Tankers that has been underway since Lim’s business empire collapsed after oil prices crashed in early 2020.
Xihe's vessels were operated on charter by sister company Ocean Tankers, also under judicial administration.
VesselsValue indicates that 63 vessels owned and operated by the two companies, ranging from small bunker tankers to VLCCs, have since been sold.
The smaller bunker tankers have mostly been offloaded to operators in Singapore although some have been sold into other markets.
The larger tankers have proven popular, with companies such as Zodiac Maritime, Maran Tankers Management, Pantheon Tankers and Yasa Shipping snapping up many of the VLCCs.
Grant Thornton, Xihe's judicial managers, could not be reached for comment due to a public holiday in Singapore on Wednesday.
Asset freeze
The piecemeal fleet sell-off is just one of the many problems Lim and his family have had to face since he admitted in a court affidavit in April last year that he had directed company staff to hide about $800m of futures losses that had accrued over several years.
The latest legal blow came last Friday when the High Court of Singapore accepted a request from Hin Leong’s liquidators to freeze up to $3.5bn of the global assets of Lim, his son, Lim Chee Meng Evan, and daughter, Lim Huey Ching.
"Our lawyers will be following up with the next steps in the next few days including to require the Lim Family to disclose their assets on affidavit," PwC's Goh Thien Phong wrote in an email seen by Reuters.
The letter by Goh, who is one of the joint liquidators, was sent on 21 May to more than 200 creditors of Hin Leong.
Hin Leong’s creditors and liquidators have reportedly been able to recoup just $270m from the collapsed company, which in October last year had total liabilities in excess of $4bn.
Last year, police in Singapore charged Lim, now 79, with two counts of abetment of forgery for the purpose of cheating.
An additional 23 forgery-related charges were levied against him at the end of April. The next hearing for the case has been set for 24 June.
