Successfully acted for a Trustee Manager to wind up a registered business trust structure on just and equitable grounds, under the Business Trusts Act. This is believed to be the first time that a business trust was successfully wound up on just and equitable grounds in Singapore. RHT Health Trust’s business and operations had been caught in an impasse for years by Indian legal proceedings and threats of litigation in relation to its disposal of healthcare assets worth S$895.55 million.
As RHT Health Trust is a business trust and not a company, the insolvency and liquidation mechanisms under the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act are not applicable. We therefore had to make arguments from first principles on just and equitable winding up, borrowing from foreign jurisprudence, to satisfy the Singapore High Court on the appropriate orders and ancillary directions that should be granted.
The application was also heavily opposed by Indian litigants, as well as the business trust’s largest single unitholder, a state-owned listed entity. Our successful application allowed the business trust to break years of deadlock, and will be the first step to recovery for the trust’s more than 4,400 investors.
Advising the Trustee Manager are Partners Wilson Zhu, Evelyn Wee, Hoon Chi Tern and Jasselyn Seet.
