In a letter sent to the editor in chief of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, replying to an article published a few hours earlier, Vincenzo Onorato, head of Moby Group, revealed some details of the business plan that he was trying to perform until the action taken from the bondholders to the Court of Milan made the things going worse.
One of the most interesting details is that both the roro ships MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO and ALF POLLAK bareboat chartered by Fratelli Onorato Armatori and sub-chartered to Tirrenia Cin was not done directly with Moby, in order not to increase the company’s financial exposure. “At least until we were able to obtain a financial deleverage of the group” and this plan was possible with the sale and purchase of two ferries with DFDS since “EUR 66 millions of the total 75 million expected should have gone to the banks as anticipated payment of the mortgage”. The deal was not completed also because Unicredit did not give the needed green light.
Going back to the two roro ships, Onorato added: “We already informed the banks about our availability to put them inside Moby group” thus transferring the control from Fratelli Onorato Armatory, separated company controlled by Vincenzo Onorato’s sons, Achille and Alessandro.
The seasoned Italian shipowner concluded anticipating that “the group controlled by Onorato Armatori will close 2019 in profit and with better results compared with the previous year”. He further stated that Moby’s fleet has a value in his opinion of EUR 1.2 billion.