Bertram Rickmers willing to relinquish control to save company
Bertram Rickmers has pledged to relinquish control of Rickmers Holding in a restructuring bid to stave off creditors.
Rickmers Holding has outlined a restructuring plan which it will put forward to creditors whereby the famous German shipowner has said he is willing to cut his stake in the company from 100% to 24.9%, offering the 75.1% to HSH Nordbank, bondholders and another unnamed bank.
Rickmers has also pledged to pay EUR10m in cash to relieve the Rickmers Group from a shipyard liability of a further $10m, to waive licensing fees up to the end of the first quarter of 2021 and to procure a back-up loan facility of up to a further EUR10m for possible future liquidity requirements of Rickmers Holding. He also made a cash contribution last year of EUR13m.
Auditors hired by Rickmers maintain the restructuring plan put forward are “considerably more favourable” than an insolvency, a release stated.
“Should the corporate bodies of the creditors and/or the bondholders not approve the proposed restructuring, the restructuring would likely fail and the going concern forecast of Rickmers Holding AG would likely no longer apply,” the release concluded.