Tam Chee Chong certainly has his work cut out for him over the next five weeks.
The Singapore-based partner of accounting firm Deloitte & Touche has the unenviable task of helping the beleaguered China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation (CAO) back on to its feet.
Mr Tam has until January 21 to present CAO's numerous creditors with a restructuring plan that deals with the company's US$550 million derivatives loss and its outstanding debt of US$152 million. But his restructuring efforts will be wasted unless he can also persuade would-be investors that CAO will remain a major long-term player in the Chinese jet fuel market, and is therefore worthy of a hefty capital injection.
With estimated negative equity of more than US$400 million, analysts reckon CAO is going to need far more than the US$100 million transfusion mooted by the company's parent, China Aviation Oil Holding Company.
Mr Tam's job got much harder last week when the Beijing-based parent said it was going into the jet fuel import business with PetroChina and Sinopec, presumably in direct competition with a new subsidiary CAO has set up in order to keep trading.
China Aviation Oil Holding's surprise move to jump into bed with PetroChina and Sinopec came less than a week after it said it would allow four other Chinese firms to start operations in a business that had previously been CAO's exclusive preserve.
