Plunging Oil Prices Create Bad-Loan Headache for Singapore Banks
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DBS exposed to liquidation of oil-services firm Swiber
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Moody’s says energy lending is 5.3 percent of Singapore loans
The plunge in oil prices is catching up with Singapore’s three largest banks.
On Thursday, Swiber Holdings Ltd., a small Singapore company that provides construction services for international oil and gas projects, said it filed a petition toliquidate its operations, after facing payment demands from creditors at a time when its business was under pressure. DBS Group Holdings Ltd., one of the largest lenders to Swiber, said it only expects to recover about half of the S$700 million ($518 million) it loaned to the firm and its units.
DBS and Singapore’s two other large banks, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd., are exposed to the downturn in the energy sector as a result of their lending to local companies which provide construction, shipping and maintenance services to the oil and gas industry. Many of those companies are suffering as the plunge in crude prices since 2014 curtailed exploration and other activity by oil and gas producers…
Plunging Oil Prices Create Bad-Loan Headache for Singapore Banks
