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As annual losses balloon, Rickmers Maritime Trust reiterates going concern worries

Struggling Rickmers Maritime Trust (RMT) posted a full year loss of $180m, red ink spiraling 39% more than in 2015 and has once again voiced concerns that the boxship leasor might struggle to survive unless creditors accept its restructuring plan.

The CEO of the endangered firm admitted in a release that fixing his ships had become difficult given all the bad press surrounding the company, which suspended trading on the Singapore Exchange last year.

“Our efforts to secure customers for the vessels in the spot market have been hampered by the public attention on the need for the trust’s debts to be restructured,” Soeren Andersen said.

Tomas Norton de Matos, the trust’s CFO reiterated that the company might have to be wound up soon.

“Securing a restructuring plan at the earliest is imperative to Rickmers Maritime’s solvency, and remains our key focus,” he said.

On the trading outlook, the trust said in a statement just released: “In the event RTM remains unsuccessful in its efforts to refinance the trust’s outstanding bank loans and restructure the notes, Rickmers Maritime may cease to operate as a going concern. In that situation, RTM may propose to wind up the trust in an orderly manner to preserve current time charters and recoveries to all stakeholders.”

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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