Singapore Amends Companies Act to Strengthen its Role as a Regional Restructuring Hub

Singapore has embarked on an ambitious effort to strengthen its insolvency regime and solidify its position as a regional restructuring hub over the past three years. This has included developing a common law regime for recognising and assisting foreign proceedings and establishing a multijurisdictional Judicial Insolvency Network to address court-to-court communications and subsequently adopting its guidelines. Additionally, the Singapore Parliament recently amended the Companies Act to, among other things, strengthen the insolvency regime to better facilitate cross-border insolvencies. This brief will address significant amendments, first looking at changes to schemes of
arrangement, then examining revisions aimed at cross-border insolvencies and finally noting changes in the judicial management structure.