Hyflux: Down the slippery slope

On July 21 this year, it was announced that beleaguered water treatment group Hyflux — for over one decade a favourite of stockmarket investors — would be wound up after tumultuous years of business challenges, debt woes and investors’ wrath. The announcement was made by Borrelli Walsh, the liquidators appointed to oversee Hyflux’s court-protected debt management. Exactly two weeks earlier, Hyflux announced that it was selling its 30% stake in the SingSpring desalination plant in Tuas to Keppel Infrastructure Trust for $12 million. In May 2019, its flagship Tuaspring desalination plant had already been taken over by the water agency, Public Utilities Board (PUB), at zero cost.