Debt-laden Singaporean oilfield services firm Ezra Holdings Ltd said that a creditor of a business owned by an Ezra joint venture had filed a court application requesting that the JV’s subsidiary be wound up.

Ezra said Necotrans, an Africa-focused logistics firm, is a creditor of EMAS-AMC Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ezra subsea services joint venture, Emas Chiyoda Subsea. Ezra has a 40 per cent stake in the latter. In a stock exchange filing, Ezra said it was assessing the impact of the application. Japanese firms Chiyoda Corp and Nippon Yusen own the rest of Emas Chiyoda Subsea with stakes of 35 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.

Earlier this month, Ezra said it may have to take a $170 million writedown on the JV. In January, Chiyoda said it expected risks and expenses of 38 billion yen ($338 million) in relation to the JV, while NYK wrote down 13 billion yen. A spokesman for NYK said it does expect any further impact from the Necotrans application so far. Chiyoda did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Ezra has been trying to restructure its operations and balance sheet to remain in business. Last week, it received a statutory demand from offshore vessel owner Forland Subsea to pay about S$4.4 million ($3 million), or face a winding up application.