Over the past few months, Zilingo, a start-up based in the island country of Singapore has been mired with controversy. The co-founder and chief executive officer of the company, Ms. Ankiti Bose was also forced to step down. She recently said that her work with the company she built from the ground up is not over yet and that she is exploring new avenues to pay the creditors all the debt owed by the company. The total debt the company has to pay off stands at $ 40 million USD and Ms. Bose is looking to make the company debt free as soon as possible.
Zilingo is a direct 2 consumer start-up e-commerce company that works in the fashion retail industry. The company was set up 7 years ago, back in 2015 by Ms. Ankiti Bose in Singapore and they have operations in their home country and have a strong hold in their region spanning countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong, India, and even the United States of America.
According to sources close to the company, Ms. Bose is looking to buy back some of her shares but it might be met with disapproval by the board of directors and that they are not counting out a legal battle if her efforts do not slow down.
Ms. Bose has also been reported to have approached two creditors of the company, Varde Partners and Indies Capital and has given them a plan for the company to pay off their loans in its entirety. The two fund management companies sanctioned loans that add up to a value of $ 40 million USD to the Singaporean company just under year ago, midway through 2021.
The loan was sanctioned under the condition that they will receive parts of the repayment every 90 days till 2023, until the loan is paid back fully including interest. But ever since Ms. Bose was forced to step down last month, they failed to fulfil their 90-day cycle payment for the first time since receiving the loan.
Both companies also have warrants on the loan which can be transferred to any potential buyer. According to the warrant, the person holding it is entitled to purchase some stock of the company for a specified lower price. Ms. Bose certainly wouldn’t want this to happen considering she trying to gain more ownership of the company. Zilingo is currently traversing through unpredictable waters and only time will tell if they make it out of this smoothly.
