Debt threat: Singaporean companies may struggle to repay $17b

Almost 1 in 3 had debts five times more than profits.

Singapore companies, highly exposed to slowing global trade and a lackluster commodity market, face a financing scramble in 2017, as more than US$12 billion of their bonds falls due and banks grow wary of lending to the resources sector.

That could trigger more blood-letting in a market that has already seen some high-profile corporate defaults, such as oil services firm Swiber Holdings (SWBR.SI), which hit the skids in July and went into judicial management this month.

It has also seen an increase in the number of bond issuers trying to renegotiate the terms of their credit to stay afloat, a disturbing signal in a market skewed to retail buyers and smaller issues subject to light scrutiny.

Corporate leverage has risen to increasingly risky levels, according to credit analysts and investors, while banks are becoming more circumspect about extending financing as the quality of their loan books causes concern.

Between now and the end of 2017, according to Reuters data, US$12.4 billion (S$17.3 billion) of bonds falls due, but corporate balance sheets in the city state are looking strained.

A Reuters study of 228 non-financial companies' half-year earnings shows that 74 had net debt more than five times their core profit, a level that usually prompts concern among credit analysts, and more than a third of that group were at least twice that level.

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