S'pore puts Premjee under judicial management

S'pore puts Premjee under judicial management

SINGAPORE (Reuters): The Singapore unit of one of Asia's oldest commodity trading firms, G. Premjee Ltd., has suspended its trading in grains and meals after it was put under interim judicial management, company sources said on Monday.

Traders in Singapore said Asia's grains, oilseeds and meals markets were unlikely to be adversely affected by this.

Officials in the parent firm in Bangkok said the interim judicial management faced by the Singapore unit, G. Premjee Trading Pte. Ltd., would not affect its businesses in Thailand.

But a trader at the South Korean agency for the firm said it could delay delivery of some soymeal shipments.

Rakesh Sodhia, managing director at G. Premjee Ltd. in Bangkok, said that its Singapore unit was under interim judicial management for 30 days starting from Oct. 11.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has been appointed to manage the Singapore trading firm for 30 days, company officials said.

"The firm will look at a restructuring plan for the Singapore G. Premjee Trading firm," Sodhia said.

He said the parent firm was a separate legal entity. "What has happened with G. Premjee Trading Singapore is not going to affect the businesses of G. Premjee in Bangkok."

The 132-year-old group has operations in 15 countries and trades in foodgrains, feedgrains, coffee, processed food, industrial products, energy, minerals, and fertilizers.

The group has a shipping wing, which is into ship chartering, owning, handling, agency and brokerage. Premjee also has rubber and jewelry businesses.

Singapore traders said the move came as no surprise as the unit had reduced its positions over the past months. "I don't think it was a surprise to anybody," said a trader at a major international trading house.

The new Indian soymeal marketing season has kicked off in a big way but traders said G. Premjee Trading Pte. Ltd.'s position was not much larger than 25,000 tons, which included deals with South Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The figure compared with overall sales so far estimated at round 450,000 tons or more for deliveries from October onwards.

Traders said G. Premjee Trading had already slashed its Indian soymeal business to around 150,000 tons during the last campaign, down from around 400,000 tons the previous year.