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Brightoil chairman stands down after bankruptcy ruling

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The chairman of the board and executive director of Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) Limited, Dr Sit Kwong Lam, was vacated as he was adjudged to be a bankrupt by the High Court of Hong Kong.

Brightoil Singapore, wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, owned a debt of over $30m to Petrolimex Singapore.

Brightoil Singapore had difficulty making payment for the invoices issued in April 2018 by Petrolimex Singapore. As such, Sit undertook a personal guarantee for Brightoil by confirming payment to Petrolimex Singapore with a deadline of 30 August 2018.

However, Brightoil Singapore still failed to pay the invoices, prompting Petrolimex Singapore to seek a winding up of the Singapore unit in November 2018.

Read more: Petrolimex seeks to wind up Brightoil’s Singapore unit

Sit intends to take necessary actions and make an application to the High Court of Hong Kong to appeal against the bankruptcy order and seek re-appointment as a director of the company.

Sit is a co-founder of Brightoil and had been the company’s chairman since 2008. The board of the company will consider replacement candidate for the position of the chairman of the board and ceo in the shortest possible time, the Hong Kong-listed company said.

Brightoil has been plagued by financial issues in recent years. The company had to suspend its stock trading in 2017. Several ships of the company had also been detained under its creditors' request.

Read more: Another Brightoil VLCC detained in China

Currently the company is under the process of debt restructuring and the board considers that the departure of Sit will not affect the ongoing restructuring process.