Market rumours are flying in Singapore around the embattled subsea venture Emas Chiyoda Subsea with talk of Kristian Siem and Subsea 7 looking to buy Nippon Yusen Kaisha’s (NYK) 25% stake in the company.
A spokesperson from NYK denied that a deal was done however, telling Splash that the company is still in talks as to how to proceed with the JV, and the Japanese shipping major has yet to reach a conclusion.
NYK has had enough of the bad press surrounding the venture which has seen charters broken and a series of legal action being taken against the business for non-payment.
Last month, NYK reassessed the future recoverable value of its stock holdings and loans to Emas Chiyoda Subsea and subsequently recorded an extraordinary loss of JPY13bn ($114.1m) in its third quarter results.
Chiyoda Corporation followed suit, and anticipates risks of up to JPY 38 bn ($333.6m) stemming from the subsea jv.
Singapore’s Ezra Holdings, which owns a 40% stake in the business, recently admitted it might have to write off $170m from its investments in the joint venture and a failure to restructure its finances could see it make a shocking exit from the subsea entity altogether.
