Tan Sri Amin Shah declared a bankrupt !

TAKEN FROM TheEdgeDaily.com - Eventhough old news but giving us some insights!

19-10-2007: Amin Shah declared a bankrupt
By Gan Yen Kuan
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KUALA LUMPUR: Reportedly touted as “Malaysia’s Onassis” by former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, Tan Sri Amin Shah Omar Shah has now been officially declared a bankrupt.

Court documents obtained by The Edge Financial Daily showed that the Kuala Lumpur High Court had on Oct 9 issued a bankruptcy order against Amin Shah on the back of a default on personal loans owing to Affin Bank Bhd amounting to RM3.22 million.

Apart from his personal loans, Amin Shah was also exposed to “hundreds of millions” of debts as a result of his personal guarantee on the loans obtained by his corporate vehicle Business Focus Sdn Bhd from other major banks, sources said.

A source said Amin Shah, who is believed to be residing in Bahrain and Dubai now, was expected to file an appeal against the bankruptcy order or attempt to come to a settlement with the bank with the blessing of the Official Assignee.

The source also said that some of the lenders exposed to Amin Shah-related bad debts were still in the midst of instituting a bankruptcy order on him without knowing that he had been declared a bankrupt.

Business Focus, which is now under liquidation, had more than RM450 million of debts as at Sept 30, 1998.

Amin Shah, 53, was once a high-profile tycoon known for his close ties to Daim during the era of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He is also well known for his ability to speak in Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien.

Under the privatisation programme advocated by Dr Mahathir in the 1990s, Amin Shah emerged as one of the few bumiputera entrepreneurs able to secure government concessions and contracts.

In 1995, the government privatised Naval Dockyard in Lumut, Perak, to the then PSC Industries Bhd (PSCI), in which Amin Shah had a substantial stake, for RM300 million. The dockyard was then renamed PSC-Naval Dockyard Sdn Bhd.

Subsequently in 1998, PSC-Naval Dockyard was awarded a mammoth RM24 billion contract to build 27 offshore patrol vessels for the Royal Malaysian Navy.

The mega privatisation project, however, turned into a major failure after PSCI failed to deliver the first fleet of six vessels. (Two vessels were built in 2005, but they failed to pass pre-delivery trials.) By that time, PSCI was already in deep financial trouble.

A series of board tussles took place at PSCI in 2005, which eventually saw Amin Shah relinquishing his executive role in the company. In early 2006, he ceased to be the chairman and director of PSCI following his absence in more than half of the board meetings held in 2005.

Following a restructuring and debt settlement scheme announced in December 2006, PSCI’s mess was cleaned up and it started afresh in August this year with a new name, Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Bhd, 65% controlled by Boustead Holdings Bhd.

Other financially-distressed companies associated to Amin Shah included Actacorp Holdings Bhd, which was delisted from Bursa Malaysia in February 2005 after failing to regularise its debts.

He had also once helmed Setron (M) Bhd, now known as Halifax Capital Bhd, a PN17 company that is facing de-listing and whose proposed regularisation plan is pending the Securities Commission’s approval.

Amin Shah lost his directorship in Bolton Bhd — his last directorship in a public-listed company in the country — in July this year after Bolton’s shareholders voted him out of the board of the company during an AGM.

According to a source, he is currently operating his own business in Dubai.
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29-10-2008: Non-Performing Loans (NPLs), bankruptcy expected to rise
by Gan Yen Kuan  - The EdgeDaily.com
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KUALA LUMPUR: The country’s banking institutions are expected to see more cases of loan defaults next year that would likely bring about increasing number of bankruptcy orders, industry sources said.

A source familiar with the management of bad loans in the local banking industry told The Edge Financial Daily that bankruptcy cases had been “on the rise” since September, involving both individuals and companies.

“There is an increase in terms of both the number of cases and the amount owed. Most of the loan defaults involve the retail segment. There are also more and more defaults in hire-purchase loans. The number of delinquent accounts is rising.

“These rising numbers cannot be avoided. Markets are so bad. People just can’t pay. I foresee it (the number of bankruptcy) will be worse next year,” the source said.

In general, a loan in Malaysia is classified as non-performing loan (NPL) when the principal or interest is due and unpaid for three months or more from the first day of default. As such, the source said the rising number of unpaid loans in the second half of the year would only be classified as NPLs and be reflected going into 2009.

Latest data on the actual number of bankruptcy in the country could not be immediately available from the Department of Insolvency.

While some major banks have generally reported reasonable NPL figures in the first half of the year, a source said the picture of the country’s NPLs could be bleak next year.

“It takes time for the spillover effect from the failure of several US banks and global economy slowdown to take place here. It is October now, which means the year is ending. I think things will surface and get worse next year,” he noted.

A source believed that locally incorporated foreign banks might not see as much NPLs as would the local banks, with the exception of “one or two” newcomers that had aggressively extended loans to individuals who were previously shunned by major banks.

“One or two banks were quite aggressive in lending to individuals for them to buy shares in the stock market, but that was before the market crashed. Now the market crashed, so I think these banks may not look good in terms of NPL,” he said.
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29-10-2007: Kishu to appeal against bankruptcy order

by Gan Yen Kuan - TheEdgeDaily.com
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KUALA LUMPUR: Former Globe Silk Store owner Tan Sri Kishu Tirathrai has filed an application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court to reverse a court order that had declared him a bankrupt.

Court documents obtained by The Edge Financial Daily showed that Kishu has applied to the Official Assignee for the latter’s permission for him to appeal to the Federal Court.

In May 2005, the Senior Assistant Registrar (SAR) of Kuala Lumpur High Court issued a bankruptcy order against Kishu on the back of a default on personal loans owing to Affin Bank Bhd amounting to RM10 million.

Subsequently, Kishu appealed to the High Court Judge, who had in October 2006 overturned the SAR’s decision, and had decided to set aside the bankruptcy order.

However, in September this year, the Court of Appeal had allowed Affin Bank’s appeal and had unanimously reinstated the SAR’s bankruptcy order against Kishu.

The documents showed that Kishu was also exposed to more than RM100 million of debts via his family company Tirathrai Holdings Sdn Bhd owing to Affin Bank, as a result of his personal guarantee on these loans.

Kishu is best known for growing Globe Silk Store — a family business set up by his late father Tirathdas Jethanand in 1930 — into a household name after taking over the helm in 1972 following his father’s demise.

However, Globe Silk Store was closed down in 2005, after 75 years in business, under a liquidation exercise by its creditors.

In July this year, Kishu, together with his wife Puan Sri Mona Kishu and two sons, Vinod and Bushan, were sentenced to three months’ jail for contempt of court.

They were found guilty of interfering and obstructing an order of sale for the Globe Silk Store building in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Kuala Lumpur, but were allowed bail of RM10,000 each in one surety.

Kishu is also formerly a director of Bank Negara Malaysia, a director of the Malaysian Industrial Development Corporation, and chairman of Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation.

Early this year, Kishu was appointed as one of the five members in the advisory council of the Iskandar Regional Development Authority, the statutory body responsible for determining the policies and strategies for the development within Iskandar Development Region in south Johor.
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