JD Supra (JD Supra Singapore)

Registration of Business Entities - Unless exempted, business entities must be registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) via their business filing portal: BizFile+. A foreigner residing overseas would need to engage the services of a registered filing agent (for example, a law firm, accounting firm or corporate secretarial firm) to submit the online application

The Significant Investments Review Bill (the Bill), introduced by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), was passed by parliament on 9 January 2023 and is likely to enter into force in mid to late 2024. The Bill aims to protect the national interests of Singapore by regulating significant investment in, and control of, critical entities.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) introduced the Significant Investments Review Bill (the Bill) to parliament on 6 November 2023. The Bill aims to protect the national interests of Singapore by regulating significant investment in, and control of, critical entities. Entities that are considered critical to Singapore’s national security will be designated under the regime and will be...

New legislation strengthening the compulsory acquisition regulatory framework in the Companies Act 1967 is welcome news for minority shareholders. On 9 May 2023 the Parliament of Singapore passed the Companies, Business Trusts and Other Bodies (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill (the Bill), which, among other changes, excludes shares held by certain persons connected with the offeror from the...

Registration of Business Entities - Unless exempted, business entities must be registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) via their business filing portal: BizFile+. A foreigner residing overseas would need to engage the services of a registered filing agent (for example, a law firm, accounting firm or corporate secretarial firm) to submit the online application...

KEY FACTS OF REAL ESTATE ACQUISITIONS UNDER SINGAPOREAN LAW - INTRODUCTION - There are two systems of land registration in Singapore: registration under the Registrations of Deeds Act, known as “unregistered land”, and registration under the Land Titles Act, known as “registered land”. Currently, most land in Singapore has been converted and brought under the latter registration system....

The Variable Capital Company (VCC) is a new corporate entity structure under which several collective investment schemes (whether open-end or closed-end) may be gathered under the umbrella of a single corporate entity and yet remain ring-fenced from each other. Please see Publication below for more information.

Historically, Singaporean law prohibited third party funding arrangements and outcome-related fee structures (ORFS) such as “No-Win, No-Fee” or “No-Win, Less-Fee”. However, other common law jurisdictions, such as England and Wales and Australia, have relaxed their equivalent laws and now permit some third party funding and ORFS to some extent. Singapore took its first steps towards levelling the...

Registration of Business Entities - Unless exempted, business entities must be registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) via their business filing portal: BizFile+. A foreigner residing overseas would need to engage the services of a registered filing agent (for example, a law firm, accounting firm or corporate secretarial firm) to submit the online application...

KEY FACTS OF REAL ESTATE ACQUISITIONS UNDER SINGAPOREAN LAW - INTRODUCTION - There are two systems of land registration in Singapore: registration under the Registration of Deeds Act, known as “unregistered land”, and registration under the Land Titles Act, known as “registered land”. Currently, most land in Singapore has been converted and brought under the latter registration system. As

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a Consultation Paper on Proposals to Mandate Reference Checks. - All financial institutions and entities regulated by the MAS are proposed to be required to carry out reference checks and to keep conduct records on the majority of their employees. If the proposed regime is implemented without change, it will mean that Singapore’s reference...

On 19 May 2021, the financial industry taskforce of Singapore (known as the Green Finance Industry Taskforce (GFIT)) released guidelines on climate-related disclosures and a white paper on green finance solutions. Convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), GFIT’s overarching objective is to accelerate green finance in Singapore through four key initiatives: (1) develop a taxonomy, (2)

Introduction - Service of a Writ of Summons (Writ) on a company is typically effected by leaving the Writ at or sending the Writ by registered post to the registered office of the company. Corporate defendants need to be vigilant when a Writ has been served, lest a default judgment is entered against them when they do not respond.

Introduction - Just over a year ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced a “circuit breaker” which closed most work places except for essential services and key economic sectors such as food establishments, markets and supermarkets, clinics, hospitals, utilities, transport and key banking services.

What is the new law? In order to reduce waste being sent to the Semakau landfill, Singapore introduced the Zero Waste Masterplan in 2019. The masterplan, along with the Resource Sustainability Act (RSA), 2019 provide the strategy and the legal framework to position Singapore as a sustainable, resource-efficient nation. These new developments apply to three waste-generating sectors –...

What is the new law? In order to reduce waste being sent to the Semakau landfill, Singapore introduced the Zero Waste Masterplan in 2019. The masterplan, along with the Resource Sustainability Act (RSA), 2019 provide the strategy and the legal framework to position Singapore as a sustainable, resource-efficient nation. These new developments apply to three waste-generating sectors – electronic

What is the new law? In order to reduce waste being sent to the Semakau landfill, Singapore introduced the Zero Waste Masterplan in 2019. The masterplan, along with the Resource Sustainability Act (RSA), 2019 provide the strategy and the legal framework to position Singapore as a sustainable, resource-efficient nation. These new developments apply to three waste-generating sectors –...

Nobody is immune to scams and cyber-attacks. With the increase in scammers’ levels of sophistication, their targets have also increased in scale. Scammers even routinely target multinational corporates and banks which have far more robust defences and highly trained personnel than the average SME.

In personal injury and death claims, damages for future losses will typically form a substantial portion of a claimant’s quantum of damages. Quantifying future damages is a difficult task, which “involves a double exercise in the art of prophesying not only what the future holds for the injured plaintiff but also what the future would have held for him if he had not been injured” (Paul v Rendell (

Since the Rock Advertising decision of the UK Supreme Court in 2018, 'no oral modification' clauses have generally been strictly enforced. However, in Lim v Hong, the Singapore Court of Appeal has set a more flexible test for enforcement of such clauses. Where a party can prove that the parties agreed orally to modify the terms of their agreement, that modification may be enforceable despite a 'no

This guide offers an overview of various business entities in Singapore. It is meant as a brief introduction only and is certainly not comprehensive. Other requirements, considerations and restrictions may apply. Further specific advice should hence be sought from legal advisors, tax consultants and where applicable, industry specialists before establishing a business entity in Singapore which...

Introduction - On April 13, 2021, Grab Holdings, Inc. announced that it is considering listing on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange by merging with Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Altimeter Growth for his US $ 396 billion. It was widely reported. This is the largest merger by SPAC at this time. The deal is in line with the great interest in listing and merging SPACs, with this year's SPAC-rela

With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the global shift toward digital transformation, the use of electronic signatures in place of traditional “wet ink” signatures has become more common. In Singapore, the enforceability of electronic signatures is governed by the Electronic Transactions Act (Chapter 88) (the ETA), which draws a distinction between electronic signatures, secure electronic...

In February 2021, Ministry of Law (MinLaw) and Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) released a draft Copyright Bill (the draft Bill) for public consultation. The draft Bill is significant because it is the first time the existing Copyright Act (the Act) is being restructured and rewritten as a whole.

In the recent case of Convexity Ltd. v. Phoenixfin Pte Ltd., Mek Global Ltd. and Phoenixfin Ltd. [2021] SGHC 88, the Singapore High Court departed from its pro-arbitration stance and set aside an arbitral award.

KEY FACTS OF REAL ESTATE ACQUISITIONS UNDER SINGAPOREAN LAW - INTRODUCTION - There are two systems of land registration in Singapore: registration under the Registration of Deeds Act, known as “unregistered land”, and registration under the Land Titles Act, known as “registered land”. Currently, most land in Singapore has been converted and brought under the latter registration system. As

A team of independent legal counsel issued a legal opinion (the Opinion) on 14 April on Directors’ Responsibilities and Climate Change under Singapore law, concluding that directors of corporations in Singapore are obliged to consider climate change risks as part of their duties to act in the best interests of the company.

Introduction - On 13 April 2021, Grab Holdings Inc. made headlines when it announced its intention to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market through its US$39.6 billion merger with Altimeter Growth Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in what is the largest SPAC merger to date.

The proposal covers broad admission criteria; conditions for founding shareholders, the management team, and controlling shareholders; and business combination requirements. On 31 March, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) published a consultation paper proposing a primary listing framework for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to list on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange...

On 19 March 2021, the Singapore High Court issued an important decision on the concept of a “forced joinder” in CJD v CJE [2021] SGHC 61 (available here).  A forced joinder refers to a third party consenting to be joined as a party to extant arbitration proceedings on the application of one of the arbitrants…