The creditors of financially troubled offshore marine group Swiber Holdings have given the green light to a restructuring proposal by Canada’s Seaspan Corporation.
At a creditor’s meeting on Wednesday, the restructuring proposal gained approval from 83% of Swiber Holdings’ creditors representing 75.86% in value of claims present and voting, and by 77% of Swiber Offshore Construction’s creditors representing 97.5% in value of claims present and voting.
The approvals came almost three years after Swiber filed for insolvency, before changing its mind and going under judicial management.
“The mandate given by creditors today is positive news for Swiber, providing the company an opportunity to be rehabilitated with the proposed investment from Seaspan. While there is still much to do in the restructuring process, including obtaining shareholders’ and regulatory approvals, we believe this is a positive step towards achieving a successful restructuring,” said judicial manager Bob Yap, head of restructuring at KPMG in Singapore.
Earlier this month, the judicial managers called on creditors to vote in favour of the restructuring proposal. Swiber will transfer various assets to the New Swiber group and restructure its debts through the issuance of new Swiber shares to unsecured creditors and redeemable convertible bonds to certain secured creditors.
It is envisaged that the new Swiber group will be an energy solution provider, particularly in the LNG sector where it is planning to build, own and operate LNG-to-power plants in Vietnam. Next week, Splash readers can gain insight into why Seaspan, traditionally a containership lessor, decided to support Swiber with an exclusive interview with the CEO of the Vancouver-based shipping giant.
