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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.

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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