China Aviation Oil Corp is driven into a corner by creditors

China Aviation Oil Corp (Singapore), which lost US$550 million in speculative trading last year, has averted liquidation after the majority of creditors accepted its &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2003/01/16/42118.html ' target=_blank>debt-restructuring plan yesterday.

The Singapore-listed company won the support from creditors hours after it announced that its suspended Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chen Jiulin and other four company officials were arrested.

On a creditor meeting yesterday, 89 of 92 creditors accepted the company's debt-payment proposal, CAO's spokesman Gerald Woon told reporters in Singapore.

The agreement concludes seven months of negotiations with creditors since CAO revealed its huge losses.

The company would go &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2001/06/15/7803.html ' target=_blank>bankrupt should it fail to win votes from half of its 126 creditors to support its debt-payment plan at the creditors meeting, reports Xinhuanet.

During a two-and-a-half hour, closed-door meeting, the firm told creditors that CAO shares would eventually resume trading after they were suspended at S$0.965 on Nov. 26. One creditor said the atmosphere at the meeting was "cordial." But, in the months following CAO's meltdown, the former stock market darling's relations with creditors and investors were far from straightforward as it fended off several creditor lawsuits.

The company said earlier on Wednesday it accepted and settled a $28 million claim from Indonesian consortium Satya Capital Ltd. over a scuttled Singapore Petroleum stake sale.