Interim relief: sale of assets

Section 12A of Singapore’s International Arbitration Act is drafted in all but identical terms to section 44 of the English Arbitration Act 1996. Both provisions authorise the court to grant interim relief preserving assets or evidence where the arbitrators themselves have not been appointed or are otherwise unable to act. Belinda Ang Saw Ean J in Five Ocean Corporation v Cingler Ship Pte Ltd [2015] SGHC 311 has considered the operation of that provision where the relief sought is the sale of the assets that form the heart of the dispute between the parties.

Five Ocean : the contracts