EMEA News
Deiulemar Shipping Looks to Liquidate
Italian dry freight group Deiulemar Shipping Company SpA (Deiulemar Shipping) is seeking liquidation to avoid formal bankruptcy proceedings after Italian prosecutors seized assets totaling 323 million Euros ($399.5 million) which included 10 of its vessels, according to a Reuters report Friday.
In the report Deiulemar Shipping's lawyer Astolfo Di Amato said the company had filed a debt restructuring proposal on Tuesday to liquidate the company and sell all its assets to partially satisfy its creditors.
"It's an attempt to save the company from bankruptcy," said Di Amato.
"This is the situation: they are about 500 million Euros ($606 million) in debt and 150 million ($186 million) in credit. The situation has become extremely precarious after the bankruptcy of Deiulemar Compagnia di Navigazione so we think this is the best way to safeguard the creditors," he added.
A notice posted June 15, 2012 on Torre del Greco's website, where Deiulemar Shipping is based, said bankruptcy proceedings had been set for October 25, 2012 with applications by creditors of the company to be submitted no earlier than 30 days prior to that date.
Deiulemar Compagnia di Navigazione was declared bankrupt in May owing about 860 million Euros having said to have irregularly issued around 700 million Euros of bonds, while selling off its ships to Deiulemar Shipping.
Reuters quotes Giuseppe Colapietro, the lawyer for some bondholders in Deiulemar Compagnia di Navigazione, as saying Deiulemar Shipping's liquidation proposal was a bid to avoid the imminent extension of the bankruptcy to the shipping firm as there was a clear link between the two, with Mr. Di Amato arguing the two companies are different entities and its purchase of the vessels was regular.
Italian prosecutors were said to have viewed the handover of the fleet as a "distractive act".
In an interview posted on Deiulemar Compagnia di Navigazione's website, former CEO Michael Iuilano says that the directors had proposed a 52% repayment to bond investors at a meeting in April, 2012 consisting of 23% of that amount to be paid in cash and the balance of 29% to be split equally between new bonds and shares.
The proposal was rejected by stakeholders, and Mr. Iuilano died in May of heart failure while authorities were searching his villa in Torre del Greco.
Italian police said on July 16, 2012 nine members of the founding families of Deiulemar Compagnia di Navigazione had been arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy leading to fraudulent bankruptcy, aggravated fraud against the state, fake tax returns, money laundering, and illegal collection of investments.
