High Court dismisses company director's bid to wind up interior design firm

A Singaporean interior design firm, Interior Times (Conquest), referred to as Interior Times, has had its winding up application dismissed by the High Court.

According to court documents, one of Interior Times's shareholders and directors, Bryan Lim Jun Da, filed the application for winding up.

On Jan. 23, the High Court dismissed the application on insolvency grounds, as Lim had not accounted for the fact that his debts of over S$4 million to Interior Times outweighed what the company owed to others at over S$1.2 million.

Lim appealed the High Court's decision on Jan. 28, and on Feb. 13, 2026, the High Court provided its written grounds for the decision.

'Unable to pay its debts'

Interior Times was incorporated by Lim and his business partner, Koh Jia Jun, in March 2021.

The company operated until mid-2025, and disputes arose in July 2025 with Koh working on another interior design business.

Lim was the majority shareholder with 60 per cent of the company's shares, while Koh was the other shareholder and director of Interior Times, who held 40 per cent of the shares, according to court documents.

He cited three main reasons for his application: that the company was "unable to pay its debts"; he alleged that Koh, the "company's other director, had acted unfairly and preferred his own interests"; and "that it was nonetheless just and equitable" to do so.

Lim claimed that Koh had breached his fiduciary duty, resulting in a deadlock and "breakdown of trust and confidence between the shareholders", but the court noted that Lim had failed to take the necessary operational steps to address the issue.

Debts of over S$1.2 million

Justice Philip Jeyaretnam said that he considered "whether Interior Times' current assets exceeded its current liabilities" and if the "liquidity problem could be cured in the reasonably near future".

Court documents stated that Lim relied on debts owed to the company's trade suppliers, subcontractors, a judgment debt to his mother, Ong Tee Hong and unpaid director's fees to himself as evidence of the company's inability to pay its debts.

The debts amounted to more than S$1,291,421.32, and Interior Times had a cash balance of only S$20,000 as of November 2025.

However, Jeyaretnam said that he was "not satisfied that Interior Times was unable to pay its debts".

He said that in the default judgement "Lim had stymied the appointment of lawyers to defend the company" and that payments made by Ong may have reduced the debts owed to the company by her son.

Koh also raised the fact that he was making payments to Interior Times' creditors as recently as December 2025.

In Jeyaretnam's view, Koh had paid about half of the company's debts, which undermined the argument that the company was unable to pay its debts.

Evidence unsatisfactory

Lim presented the list of debts without following the requirements that all documents used in court must be in English, and if not, must be accompanied by a certified translation.

Lim admitted to using Google Translate, which was not an adequate or acceptable translation under the rules of court.

Moreover, when Lim was faced with reminders from creditors, court documents said that his recurring refrain was "not my job" and "take from [Koh]".

Hence, Jeyaretnam said that the evidence showed the company had debts that were being repaid by Koh and did not prove that they could not pay the remainder.

Lim's over S$4 million debt to Interior Times

Lim procured loans from Interior Times and owed the company more than S$4 million, which he did not mention in the first affidavit in the winding up application.

"If the company was unable to pay its debts to trade creditors, this was because Mr Lim had not paid the company what he owed it."

When raised in court, Lim did not deny the existence of the debts, but alleged that Koh had also taken up company loans of his own.

Lim appeared to have faced bankruptcy proceedings for debts of around S$300,000, but Jeyaretnam concluded that there was insufficient evidence to show Lim could not pay what he owed.

Jeyaretnam also said that Koh had not preferred his own interests despite allegedly diverting business to himself or by selectively paying off Interior Times' debts.

The judge also dismissed the claim that it was "just and equitable to wind up Interior Times" as Lim was the majority shareholder.

The winding up application was dismissed, and Lim was ordered to pay fixed costs of S$12,000 to Koh.

Top photo from Alfred Goh/Facebook and Interior Times/Instagram