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Singapore tycoon wants banks to pay US$1 billion for collapse of Australian NewSat
The suit claims that the lenders failed to honour loan agreements, preventing NewSat from building its satellites
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In the early 2010s, a small Australian company tried to build a fleet of satellites before lenders, concerned about its chief executive officer’s flamboyant behaviour, pulled hundreds of millions of dollars of financing. The firm collapsed in 2015.
More than a decade later, Singapore real estate tycoon Ching Chiat Kwong, who says he put US$100 million of his own money into NewSat, has not forgotten.
The Supreme Court of Victoria begins hearing a case on Monday brought by the liquidators of the company against lenders Societe Generale, Credit Suisse – now owned by UBS Group – and Standard Chartered, as well as credit insurers Export-Import Bank of the United States, and Coface of France.
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Within the suit are allegations that the lenders failed to honour loan agreements, which prevented NewSat from paying contractors to build and launch a satellite, ultimately resulting in a loss of potential earnings.
Just how much was lost is contentious.
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Ching, in an interview, has put the claim at around US$1 billion, based on an expert report, due to the lost opportunity to launch the original satellite and others planned for the future.
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