Autobahn directors bankrupt over S$115M owed DBS after debt-fueled fleet expansion

The two directors of Singapore private-hire car rental firm Autobahn Rent A Car were declared bankrupt over a combined S$114.6 million owed to DBS alone. According to the Government Gazette, a bankruptcy order was made against Sanjay Kumar Rai on Feb 26, 2026 and against Tan Boon Kee, also known as Roy Tan, on Apr 9, 2026. DBS had filed the applications after serving statutory demands in December 2025.

The debt was the end of a leveraged expansion: Autobahn and 18 linked companies — including car-sharing service Shariot, Hamilton Autohub, Hamilton Autobahn and Hamilton Capital — owed creditors including all three local banks more than S$300 million, much of it from expanding a private-hire car fleet of around 1,700 cars. Tan and Rai were directors and shareholders in most of these companies and had given joint and several guarantees for the banking facilities. After the group failed to obtain creditor protection in December 2025, Autobahn and its related companies suspended their business.

Personal bankruptcy was not the worst of it. In January 2026 both directors were charged with forgery for attempting to cheat Hyundai dealer Komoco Motors with falsified receipts, and Tan received an additional charge involving Toyota dealer Borneo Motors. They were granted bail of S$500,000 and S$300,000 respectively on Feb 13.

Other creditors joined DBS's action: Teck Wei Credit said it was owed S$74.2 million and Toyota Financial Services S$43.1 million, mostly on guarantees for car loans, alongside HL Bank. The collapse roiled Singapore's PHC and rental car industry, which lost a high-profile player to hundreds of millions in debt and criminal charges.

The group funded a roughly 1,700-car fleet expansion with S$300 million-plus of debt spread across 18 linked companies, signed for personally by the two directors.

The structure offered no shelter: when creditor protection failed in December 2025, every linked company — from Autobahn to Shariot — suspended business at once.

Guarantees converted corporate collapse into personal bankruptcy, with DBS pursuing S$54.8 million from Tan and S$59.8 million from Rai, and other lenders citing more.

Falsified receipts aimed at dealers Komoco Motors and Borneo Motors turned a solvency failure into a criminal case.

When a rental fleet is financed on personal guarantees, expansion debt is personal debt: the directors lost their solvency and now face criminal charges over receipts.

Bankruptcy orders were published in the Government Gazette for Rai (Feb 26) and Tan (Apr 9, 2026), with BDO Advisory's Leow Quek Shiong and Seah Roh Lin appointed trustees of both estates. The forgery charges against the two directors remained before the courts. DBS was represented by Rajah & Tann Singapore; the case left Singapore's PHC rental industry dealing with the collapse of a high-profile player and hundreds of millions in debt.