Bits & Bytes: Cryptocurrency group granted moratoria to formulate worldwide restructuring plan centred in Singapore

9 November 2023

Allen & Gledhill Partner Alexander Lawrence Yeo contributed an article titled “Cryptocurrency group granted moratoria to formulate worldwide restructuring plan centred in Singapore” to Bits & Bytes, a monthly online bulletin hosted on the website of the Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and the Law (TRAIL) at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore.

In Re Babel Holding Ltd and other matters [2023] SGHC 98, the General Division of the Singapore High Court considered five applications for scheme moratoriums by members of a cryptocurrency group. This case comment provides a short analysis of the decision.

In granting the moratoria and sealing applications sought, the Singapore High Court made a number of observations and holdings on: (i) whether group companies could consolidate or pool their assets and liabilities in a scheme of arrangement, effectively overriding the separate legal entity doctrine where companies (even in a group) are treated as having their own separate assets and liabilities distinct from other members of the group, and (ii) when the court should grant confidentiality orders anonymising the names of creditors in a scheme of arrangement.