Singaporean oil trader hid $800m in losses – The National

Singaporean oil trader hid $800m in losses – The National

The founder and director of top Singapore oil-trading company Hin Leong Trading directed the firm not to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars in losses over several years, he said in a court filing.. Despite reporting net profit of $78.2 million for the business year ended in October, "HLT has not been making profits in the last few years", Mr Lim said in the filing, which has not been made public.. The company "suffered about $800m in futures losses over the years but these were not reflected in the financial statements", he said.. HLT and Ocean Tankers could not be reached for comment over the weekend.. The 23 banks named in the filing declined or did not respond to emailed requests in recent days for comment.. A drop of two-thirds in the oil price in the first three months of this year, a tightening of bank credit lines and margin calls at HLT caused a "severe depletion" of the company's cash reserves, Mr Lim said in the filing.. HLT recorded payments to meet the margin calls as accounts receivable, the company sold "a substantial part of inventory" being financed by banks to raise cash and it did not sufficiently hedge