AsiaOffshore

Emas Offshore subsidiary to be liquidated

Offshore vessel operator Emas Offshore, one of the only companies in the Ezra Holdings group that hasn’t filed for bankruptcy protection, says the High Court of Singapore has ordered the winding-up of its fully-owned subsidiary Lewek Champion Pte Ltd at the request of Hai Jiang 1401, a special purpose vehicle controlled by China’s ICBC Financial Leasing.

The court ordered a winding up order be made against Lewek Champion and that Andrew Grimmett and Lim Loo Khoon, from Deloitte & Touche LLP, be appointed as joint and several liquidators of Lewek Champion.

Legal action was taken by ICBC after it terminated the bareboat contract for pipelay vessel Lewek Champion in March when Emas Offshore defaulted on a payment of $1.58m. The Chinese bank is demanding payment of over $195m.

Emas Offshore says that according to its statements for the financial period ended November 30, 2016, it owes $68.8m to Lewek Champion, and the winding up order may result in a material impact on the financial position of the group.

Ezra Holdings, the parent company of Emas Offshore and guarantor for the charter, filed for chapter 11 protection in the United States in March.

Grant Rowles

Grant spent nine years at Informa Group based in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. He gained strong management experience in publishing, conferences and awards schemes in the shipping and legal areas, working on a number of titles including Lloyd's List. In 2009 Grant joined Seatrade responsible for the commercial development of Seatrade’s Asia products. In 2012, with Sam Chambers, he co-founded Asia Shipping Media.
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