Legal deal to secure official ownership of Stornoway ferry 14/10/14
The troubled MV Loch Seaforth has been commercially handed over to Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL).
CMAL -
In its struggle to stay afloat, the Flensburg shipyard renegotiated financial arrangements with CMAL, proposed new owner Siem Industries, banks and the German government.
In a bid to beat the shipyard woes, a lump sum payment was made to FSG last week to transfer ownership into CMAL’s name.
Weeks of negotiations has resulted in the legally binding arrangement.
CMAL became the legal owner on Friday.
A CMAL spokesperson confirmed: “A payment was made week commencing 6th October.
“However the final retention sum will only be paid when the vessel has completed all MCA tests and inspections.”
The spokesperson added: “CMAL now has overall control of the MV Loch Seaforth and she will not be impacted by negotiations over the future acquisition of FSG.
“Work continues in the yard on final fitting out and preparation of systems for handover to Cal Mac Ferries.
“The ship will be sailing to Scotland in the next few weeks.”
The unfinished ferry was stuck in the middle of a shipyard bankruptcy threat as its builders, the Flensburger Schiffbau Gesellschaft (FSG) yard in Germany, was on the brink of financial collapse.
The yard legally owned the Loch Seaforth and the future of the ship would have remained in limbo if the business went down.
Siem Industries of Norway has stepped in to buy out the yard business. The deal is still to be completed but all parties are confident it will proceed.
As in Britain, insolvency would be overseen by the courts with two main options -
If the final takeover agreement fails and the yard goes into liquidation, the delivery of the ferry risks being delayed further. However, the new yard owners are expected to be in place within weeks.