EMEA News
No Sale of OW Bunker Despite 7 Suitors
It has not been possible to find a suitable buyer for OW Bunker, following its collapse last November, despite significant interest, Danish media reports.
Pernille Bigaard, Partner at law firm Plesner and a trustee for the bankrupt group, said a sale of the business would have been the best outcome for all concerned, but proved too difficult.
Bigaard said the trustees had narrowed interested parties down to seven where they considered the interest was real and spent their time pursuing those avenues.
Some of the interested parties were very big players, she added.
Despite a total of 50 negotiating sessions, however, the sale was not able to succeed.
According to Bigaard, various barriers ultimately proved decisive.
Either no formal tender was ultimately made, too low a price was offered, or the suitor did not have sufficient funding in place.
"It is not an easy thing to take over a company like OW Bunker,” said Bigaard, adding that the group’s bank debt alone ran to $700 million.
Even at a greatly reduced level, to resume operations a purchaser would have needed between $200 million and $300 million in operating cash flow.
Former CEO Jim Pedersen is said to have thought such a deal unlikely since the group’s bankers had shut down all credit facilities.
Ship & Bunker today also reported that OW Bunker trustees were said to be ready to fight banks ING and BNP Paribas in court over $71 million worth of inventory sales.
