PWC, ING Agree Way Forward on OW Bunker Assets

PwC will retain 12 OW Bunker Denmark staff to assist with its receivership

Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and ING Bank B.V. (ING) have announced an agreement in respect of certain debts owed by OW Bunker, Platts reports.

"The Receivers' [PwC] collections team based in Denmark will pursue all global receivables assigned and charged to ING," PwC said an emailed statement.

"All recoveries from receivables [amounts owed to OW Bunker] as at the point of bankruptcy will be paid into ING accounts and recoveries from currently uninvoiced OW Bunker Denmark sales will be paid into accounts controlled jointly by ING and the Trustees.'

PwC also said a process had been put in place to decide who had the right to certain receivables.

"The Trustees and ING have established a process to agree or have determined by a court which Danish receivables (if any) are not covered by ING's security and are available to OW Bunker Denmark as unsecured recoveries."

OW Bunker this month collapsed following a $150 million hedging loss at the group and an alleged $125 million fraud at Singapore subsidiary Dynamic Oil Trading.

"The agreement also allows for an efficient way of determining assets which have properly been assigned and charged to ING and those which have not," said Pernille Bigaard, one of the lawyers appointed as a trustee to the bankrupt estate of OW Bunker A/S and OW Supply & Trading A/S (referred to together as OW Bunker Denmark).

"This will reduce costs for Danish unsecured creditors and enhance recoveries."

PwC was this week announced as global receiver for OW Bunker group, saying its London and Singapore offices would coordinate efforts to repay creditors.

Last week, reports emerged that ING was directly contacting OW Bunker creditors in an attempt to secure payment for certain sales made by the now-defunct bunker supplier.