Pan-Electric Industries was a Singapore-based company that specialised in

marine salvage Marine salvage is the process of recovering a ship and its cargo after a shipwreck or other maritime casualty. Salvage may encompass towing, re-floating a vessel, or effecting repairs to a ship. Today, protecting the coastal environment from ...

work, and had 71

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

companies, including hotel and property interests, with a

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...

of S$230 million. The company collapsed in December of 1985 due to massive unsettled forward contracts, forcing the

Stock Exchange of Singapore The Stock Exchange of Singapore (SES) was a stock exchange company in Singapore. It was formed in 1973, when the termination of currency interchangeability between Malaysia and Singapore, caused the Stock Exchange of Malaysia and Singapore (SEMS) ...

(SES) and

Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE; ms, Bursa Saham Kuala Lumpur) dates back to 1930 when the Singapore Stockbrokers' Association was set up as a formal organisation dealing in securities in Malaya. In 1937, it was re-registered as the Malayan ...

(KLSE) to shut down for three days. At its demise, the company had a total debt of S$480 million, and all its shares held by 5,500 shareholders were found to be worthless overnight. As of 2000, it remains the largest corporate collapse in Singapore's history, and the only instance where the SES had to be unexpectedly closed. In the aftermath of the collapse, key people in the company such as

Peter Tham Peter Tham Wing Fai (born in 1948) is a Singaporean stockbroker and the director of Pan-Electric Industries. A failure by him to observe a forward contract agreement that he negotiated with Tan Koon Swan was responsible for the company's collapse ...

Tan Kok Liang Pan-Electric Industries was a Singapore-based company that specialised in marine salvage work, and had 71 subsidiary companies, including hotel and property interests, with a market capitalization of S$230 million. The company collapsed in Decembe ...

, and Tan Koon Swan were prosecuted and given varying jail sentences. The collapse of the company shook public confidence in the SES, causing prices of stocks to plunge and resulted in the

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

of some stockbroking firms. New securities laws were introduced in March 1986 to ensure that stockbroking firms could protect themselves against credit risks.

References

Defunct companies of Singapore Companies disestablished in 1985 1985 in Singapore {{Singapore-company-stub