Lenders and noteholders in bust Rickmers Trust Management will get back just 12 cents for every dollar they invested in the container ship leasor.
The Bertram Rickmers-controlled Singapore outfit revealed Tuesday that it has completed the sale of its 14 boxships to Navios, marking the end of the company which first listed on the Singapore Exchange 10 years ago.
Containership leasing was a hot investment a decade ago, but the massive increase in ship sizes left many leasors left with unpopular 4,000+ teu-class ships that have become hard to charter in the wake of the expansion of the Panama Canal last year. A vast swathe of the so called classic panamax boxship fleet was sent for demolition last year.
The sale of the fleet to Navios comes, ironically, just as this sub-sector finally shows genuine signs of picking up with analysts Alphaliner noting in its most recent weekly report: “[T]he tally of spot and prompt tonnage has decreased substantially. Three vessels in long term lay-up were re-activated to meet the current demand.”
