Fearful Banks Spurn Asia Commodity Traders in Credit Squeeze
- Lenders shun high-capital, low-margin businesses in the sector
- Hin Leong’s financial difficulties raise fears among lenders
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
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Bankers are increasingly reluctant to give commodity traders in Asia the credit they need to survive as the lenders grow ever more fearful about the risk of a catastrophic default.
Their anxiety has reached new heights in recent days as fabled Singapore oil trader Hin Leong Trading (Pte.) Ltd. struggles to repay debts said to amount to almost $4 billion. And that’s just weeks after another commodities firm in the city-state, Agritrade International Pte, collapsed after a unit defaulted on its loans.