CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping Company Limited publicly announced that on 10 May 2023 a sale & lease back agreement with Fratelli Onorato Armatori, company part of Moby, has been sealed for the two newly built ferries MOBY FANTASY and MOBY LEGACY.
MOBY FANTASY has just been delivered in May and is now en route to Italy.
MOBY LEGACY is expected to be delivered by August 2023.
A statement from Moby published on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange [Bourse.lu] announced that competitor Grimaldi Euromed filed an opposition in the Court of Appeal to the approval of the Moby creditor’s composition plan “with an action once again aimed at preventing the continuation of the composition plan approved with the positive vote expressed by approx. 90% of Moby creditors and homologated by the Court of Milan on November 24, 2022.”
This new action is being brought by Grimaldi “despite the fact that the Court of Milan has
rejected in its entirety the previous opposition to the homologation, even declaring it unfounded, condemning Grimaldi to pay the judicial costs,” Moby stated.
The next hearing in front of the Court of Appel will be held on 2 March 2023.
The Vincenzo Onorato – controlled company concluded by saying: “Against this further legal action brought by Grimaldi, already rejected in the first instance, the Company is evaluating in appropriate legal venues any legal action aimed at defending its restructuring plan and the work of its employees.”
Moby S.p.A. announced that “by Decree dated today, November 24th, the Court of Milan declared the homologation of the Composition Plan proposed by the Company and its subsidiary, CIN S.p.A. (Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione). With this Decree, the Court rejected the only action in opposition brought by Grimaldi Euromed S.p.A., ordering it to pay the judicial costs in favor of Moby and CIN”.
Green light also to the Gianluigi-Aponte-controlled MSC Group to take directly a 49% stake in Moby in exchange of EUR 150 million, of which EUR 81 million will be used to partially repay the debt of 180 million with Tirrenia in Amministrazione Straordinaria (bad company controlled by the Italian economic development minister born when the former public Tirrenia was sold in 2012).
During a conference organized by the Italian shipowners’ association Assarmatori in Livorno, CEO Achille Onorato said to Ferry Shipping News:
The Gianluigi Aponte – controlled MSC Group will take directly a 49% stake (not only 25%) in Moby as soon as the restructuring plan will be approved by the Court of Milan at the end of September.
Some documents seen by Ferry Shipping News confirm that MSC already put on the table EUR 150 million, of which EUR 81 million will be used to partially repay the debt of 180 million with Tirrenia in Amministrazione Straordinaria (bad company controlled by the Italian economic development minister born when the former public Tirrenia was sold in 2012).
MSC also reserved for itself the possibility to maintain the harbour towage division (which was intended to be sold according with the previous restructuring plans) and to replace LCBC Leasing as owner of the two new ferries under construction at GSI shipyard in China and soon to be long-time chartered to Moby.
The bankruptcy court of Milan has just admitted the new debt-restructuring plans presented by Moby and Compagnia Italiana di navigazione after a few weeks ago the judicial commissioners of Tirrenia had “expressed an overall positive opinion on the resilience of the plan”. The latter is based on a preliminary agreement with the State-owned bad company Tirrenia in Amministrazione Straordinaria (creditor for EUR 180 million) and on the EUR 80 million capital increase announced by MSC Group which will take in change a 25% stake in Moby Group.
The Court of Milan officially scheduled for next June 20th and 27th the creditors’ meeting for Moby and Tirrenia CIN respectively.
Following the breaking news announcement that MSC Group will enter the capital of Moby through a capital increase aimed at paying Tirrenia in Amministrazione Straordinaria (Tirrenia AS = bad company controlled by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development) to allow the immediate reorganization of the Moby group, some more details on the deal are emerging.
The news site Reorg Research revealed that the Geneva-based shipping group MSC will invest about EUR 80 million for a minority stake (25%) in the Italian ferry group and this money will be partly used to repay creditor Tirrenia AS, “which is going to be paid straight after the concordato homologation, and not in four years as previously envisaged.”
“Tirrenia AS will recover about 45%,” sources report.
The 45% recovery will consist of “a EUR 23 million first instalment after the concordato homologation, which will come from the EUR 63 million new money investment made by Moby’s secured creditors, while the rest will be provided via MSC’s money. The remaining cash out of MSC’s EUR 80 million investment will stay on the company’s balance sheet.”
All the ships in fleet will be transferred to a new vehicle company, named ShipCo.
Some ships are destined to be subsequently reassigned to Cin and Moby while others will be progressively sold. Everything that this ShipCo will generate from the rentals and sales of the assets will be used to partially repay the credits with banks and bondholders. Onorato Armatori will remain 75% of a company that owns the routes, the brands and the port terminals but which will be emptied of its fleet.
A green light to the ‘rescue plan’ is still needed from Tirrenia AS and from the Court of Milan.
Addendum 30 March: An agreement in the terms of the debt restructuring has just been reached between Moby and Tirrenia in Amministrazione Straordinaria
The new ropax MOBY FANTASY has been launched at the GSI shipyard in Guangzhou, on Saturday 7 November.
She is the first of two new generation vessels set to enter service from 2023.
The ferries have been designed by OSK Shiptech.
MOBY FANTASY:
237m | gross tonnage 69,500 | 2,500 passengers | 550 cabins |
3,800 lane metres for 1,300 cars or 300 trucks |
speed 23.5 to maximum 25 knots | LNG-ready |
They were ordered by Fratelli Onorato Armatori, they are controlled by LCBC Leasing and will be sub-chartered to Moby for the Livorno – Olbia link.
Moby announced that the Court of Milan on October 27th “has issued the decrees for the deferral of the meetings of creditors in the context of the composition with creditors of Moby and its subsidiary CIN”.
Under the ‘concordato preventivo’ procedure, the Court postponed the creditor’s meetings:
The postponement came after the Vincenzo Onorato-controlled group decided to present a new restructuring plan, supported by a part of the bond holders and where the refund conditions for some class of creditors were significantly improved.
Moby also announced that the shareholder’s meeting held on 28 October 2021 appointed Mr Gualtiero Brugger as member and chairman of the Board of Directors. He succeeds Vincenzo Onorato. Brugger is a professor in economics at the Bocconi University in Milan.
Finally, Moby also made public the decision of the Italian antitrust authority. They reduced the fine for abusing its dominant position for roro freight transportation on the routes linking Italy mainland to Sardinia. (from EUR 29.2 million to 1.0 million)
DFDS and CLdN are adding more roro tonnage. The ships come from the Moby fleet.
Our colleague from Shipping Italy revealed that both ELIANA MARINO and MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO ship have been sub-chartered from Moby for at least six months.
ELIANA MARINO (2,500 lane metre) will be operated on the Mersin (Turkey) – Trieste (Italy) line by DFDS
Daily charter rate should be around EUR 14,000.
MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO (4,076 lane metre) is expected to be deployed by CLdN in Northern Europe and the ‘charter price’ should exceed EUR 20,000 per day. Both charters start from October.
Both roro’s have been operating up to date by Moby (in bare boat charter) on the Motorways of the Seas, linking Italy mainland with Sicily and Sardinia islands.