THE Singapore High Court will hear the moratorium requests by debt-laden No Signboard Holdings and 2 of its subsidiaries on May 26 at 2.30 pm, according to notices in the government&rsquo s official gazette.

 

On Apr 29, the embattled restaurant operator and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, NSB Hotpot and NSB Restaurants, applied for moratorium relief spanning 6 months, under Section 64 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act.

 

No Signboard had said in its Apr 29 bourse filing that the Catalist-listed company was in the midst of negotiations with third parties as part of its efforts to restructure its liabilities.

 

The gazette notices, published on Friday (May 13) evening, said that Justice Pang Khang Chau will hear the 3 applications.

 

The trio is seeking court orders that no resolution shall be passed to wind up the companies and that no legal process shall be commenced or continued against any property of the applicants, among other things.

 

Specifically in No Signboard&rsquo s application, it has requested that OCBC, which is the creditor of S$3 million under a temporary bridging loan facility extended to the company in April 2020, be excluded from the terms of the moratorium order, the gazette notices stated.

 

According to the group&rsquo s latest annual report, NSB Restaurants operates quick-serve restaurants, and fully owns Hawker QSR and NSB-Crab Factory. Meanwhile, NSB Hotpot comes under the group&rsquo s franchise brand operator arm, NSB Global Franchise Management.

 

Food and beverage brands under the group include No Signboard Seafood, Little Sheep Hotpot, and Mom&rsquo s Touch Chicken and Burger. It also had a loss-making beer business.

CATALYST-listed restaurant operator No Signboard Holdings : 1G6 0% has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) to receive up to S$5 million in investments from renewable biomass project developer and operator Gazelle Ventures. Under the proposed investment, Gazelle Ventures will also hold a 75 per cent stake in the enlarged share capital of No Signboard through a S$500,000 subscription of new shares.

 

The remaining S$4,500,000 will be invested by way of a debt or equity instrument. This will be for working capital purposes including but not be limited to the settlement of professional, advisory and success fees on such terms and conditions as may be agreed between the companies,   No Signboard said in a bourse filing on Sunday (May 1).

 

Gazelle Ventures will also provide S$450,000 of &ldquo rescue financing&rdquo which is &ldquo subject to the satisfaction of the necessary conditions as agreed between the investor and the company&rdquo , the seafood restaurant chain said.

 

Gazelle Ventures is a Singapore-incorporated company jointly owned by Gazelle Capital and Valiant Investments. It invests in food, agri-tech and sustainable agriculture-related businesses.

 

In March, No Signboard announced that it would be shutting its Esplanade outlet to reduce costs as the outlet was making losses.

 

" The closure of the No Signboard Seafood Esplanade outlet will allow the group to focus its efforts and resources on operating the group' s casual and quick-serve restaurant outlets until further review of the evolving Covid-19 situation," the company had said.

  After two years battling the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, seafood restaurant owner No Signboard closed its Esplanade outlet on Friday (April 1), just as Singapore reopened its borders.

 

No Signboard said it had carefully considered the option of keeping the outlet open until all Covid-19 restrictions were fully lifted.

 

However, it may take several more months before travel returns to levels before the pandemic hit, even though the Government had recently eased restrictions, such as increasing the maximum group size for dine-ins from five to 10, the company said.

 

This will continue to adversely affect the business of No Signboard' s Esplanade outlet, it said in a filing on the Singapore Exchange late on Thursday night.

 

Hence, its board believes that closing the outlet to reduce operating costs would be in the best interests of the company in the light of its current financial situation.

 

No Signboard will continue to operate its other restaurant outlets, namely Little Sheep Hotpot at Orchard Gateway and No Signboard Sheng Jian at Northpoint City.

 

" The closure of the No Signboard Seafood Esplanade outlet will allow the group to focus its efforts and resources on operating the group' s casual and quick-serve restaurant outlets until further review of the evolving Covid-19 situation," said the company.

 

Given that the Esplanade outlet is making losses, it said the closure is expected to contribute positively to its consolidated net tangible assets and earnings per share for the current financial year ending on Sept 30 this year.

CATALIST-LISTED No Signboard Holdings said on Monday (Mar 14) that it will be placing its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Danish Breweries, into creditors' voluntary liquidation (CVL).

 

In a bourse filing, the restaurant operator said the subsidiary cannot continue its business by reason of its liabilities. It said: " The group has decided to proceed with the CVL of the subsidiary due to its cash flow problems and its inability to pay its debts as they fall due."

 

Danish Breweries was acquired by the group in June 2017 and is engaged in the business of the import, export and general wholesale trading of beer and liquor.

 

As the subsidiary is loss making, the voluntary liquidation is expected to " contribute positively" to the net tangible assets and earnings per share of the group for the current financial year ending Sept 2022, No Signboard said.

 

No Signboard shares last traded at S$0.031 in January, before a voluntary trading suspension was requested, as the company was not able to demonstrate that it is able to continue as a going concern.