Court postpones Continental Chemical wind-up proceedings

A public hearing in Singapore on winding-up proceedings against locally-based Continental Chemical Corp. has been postponed from August 17 and no new date has been established.It is the second time the hearing has been adjourned. A company official clarified, however, that Continental BioEnergy, a unit of Continental Chemical Holdings Ltd. Group, has not closed down, although it has not produced a drop of biodiesel over the past year because of poor margins. Austrian bank Raiffeisen Zentralbank filed the wind-up petition against Continental, formerly known as Continental Pacific (Singapore) Pte Ltd. The hearing in Singapore’s supreme court was initially scheduled for July 17. Raiffeisen is being represented by Allen & Gledhill, and Continental by Stamford Law Corp. Continental’s core activities are the production of phthalic anhydride (PA), dioctyl phthalate (DOP) and biodiesel, with manufacturing facilities in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. Continental also has a partially built PA and DOP project in Zhuhai, China, for which construction has been suspended due to financial difficulties. (August 14, 2009)