Shing Loong Finance Ltd was a licensed finance company incorporated and operating in Singapore. It caused the writ herein to issue. As a consequence of a scheme of arrangement and amalgamation, inter alia, the assets and rights of the company were vested in a company called Sim Lim Finance Ltd which as a result of a name change became KeppelFinance Ltd. On 23 June 1989, the plaintiffs, Shing Loong Finance Ltd, were substituted by Keppel Finance Ltd as plaintiffs. However, all reference to 'plaintiff/plaintiffs' in this judgment will be in effect a reference to Shing Loong Finance Ltd. The defendant is a citizen of Malaysia and at all relevant times was resident in Malaysia.

On or about 17 July 1985, the defendant sent by post from Malaysia, a written application addressed to the plaintiffs in Singapore applying for a loan in response to which the plaintiffs by letter dated 6 August 1985, addressed to the defendant in Malaysia, offered the defendant a loan of S$1.6m pursuant to which on the next day, 7 August 1985, the plaintiffs and the defendant executed in Singapore a written loan agreement. The amount lent pursuant to the agreement was, on the instructions of the def