Alston Yeong
杨凌玮
Counsel
Alston is a Counsel with the firm and specialises in all aspects of restructuring and insolvency, both contentious and non-contentious. He regularly acts and advises on a diverse range of cross-border restructurings alongside various notable international law firms and insolvency practitioners and is adept at the management of corporate distressed situations and turnarounds.
Alston has been involved in some of the most significant and challenging restructuring and insolvency projects in Singapore in the last 5 years, including his involvement in the restructuring of the Agritrade group and the liquidation of the high-profile Hin Leong group. His experience also includes acting for the liquidators of a BVI company with a debt of over US$143 million in various debt recovery actions in Singapore and advising a Chinese bank with a debt of over S$119 million in a high profile cross-border liquidation of a Singapore mainboard-listed company.
Prior to joining the firm, Alston graduated with an LLB (Hons) from Singapore Management University and has been with the firm’s Restructuring and Insolvency Practice Group since.
Alston is fluent in English, Mandarin and Hokkien.
Admissions
- Advocate and Solicitor, Supreme Court of Singapore
Professional Experience
- Acting for and advising the joint and several liquidators of Hin Leong Trading (Pte) Ltd in one of the largest and most complex liquidations in Singapore. Prior to its winding up, Hin Leong Trading was one of Asia’s largest oil traders. The ongoing liquidation has a debt profile of over US$4 billion with other creditors’ claims amounting to over US$1 billion. These claims from major banking institutions are ongoing and involve complex, multi-party litigation and mediation with many of Singapore’s leading lawyers and insolvency professionals assisting.
- Acting for various companies in the Agri Asia and Agritrade group and more notably, for Agritrade Resources Limited in various recovery actions as well as in the debt restructuring of over S$450 million across the courts in Bermuda, Hong Kong and Singapore.
- Acted for a Chinese bank in a high profile cross-border liquidation of a Singapore mainboard-listed company with over S$297 million in debts.
- Acting for and advising the Liquidators of Six Capital Investments Limited, a BVI company with a debt of over US$143 million in various recovery actions and in seeking recognition in Singapore.
- Acting for and advising BlackRock and Ares SSG (who act through their security agent, Madison Pacific Trust Limited) in respect of a US$50 million loan in an application to successfully place the borrower company into judicial management. This matter also involved a successful urgent application for an interim judicial management to prevent the borrower company from taking further steps as a majority shareholder of an Indian listed company. Alston is currently working with the judicial managers of the borrower company and advising the lenders on a cross-border debt restructuring exercise.
- Acting for and advising The Working Capitol Group, a group well-known in the property management industry in Singapore, in a group level debt restructuring. Notably, this brief included an application for a debt consolidation exercise of the Group’s debts, amounting to approximately S$48 million, to be sanctioned via a pre-packed scheme under Section 71 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018.
- Acted and advised an Indonesian businessman in the restructuring of his personal debts amounting to approximately US$240 million through a voluntary arrangement proposed pursuant to the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018.
- Successfully acted for the directors of a Singapore-based co-working space start-up in resisting claims for breaches of directors’ duties brought by the liquidator of the company for claims of over S$16 million in the Singapore High Court.
- Acting for an investment fund company in the resisting of a High Court action commenced by a bank for the sum of approximately S$19 million. This matter features the interesting consideration of whether a deed of support is capable of imposing direct guarantor obligations.
- Acted for a construction company before the High Court in a successful injunction application to restrain a creditor in liquidation and its liquidator from commencing winding up proceedings and successfully resisted the appeal against the injunction application before the Court of Appeal.
- Acted for a major shareholder of Super Park Asia Group Pte Ltd in contentious provisional liquidation proceedings. The dispute was eventually heard by the Singapore Court of Appeal which issued a judgment Superpark Oy v Super Park Asia Group Pte Ltd & Ors [2021] SGCA 8.