What will the “new Moby” be like after the debt-restructuring plan? The answer to this question can be found into the two plans that Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione and Moby have filed on 31 March at the Court of Milan.
In the documents is written that the capital increase from Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. will be “up to EUR 81 million” for a minority stake (25%) in the group. Confirmed is also that the State-owned ‘bad company’ Tirrenia in Amministrazione Straordinaria (born when Tirrenia was sold to Moby in 2012) will be paid EUR 82 million for its credit which is worth EUR 180 million.
Moby also specifies that with the ‘one shot’ payment to Tirrenia in A.S. the two ferries SHARDEN and RAFFAELE RUBATTINO will not be transferred but remain in the group’s fleet.
A new company called ShipCo and controlled by the creditors (mainly banks and bond holders) will own the remaining fleet of ropax units while the harbour tug division is soon to be sold to the highest bidder.
Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione (Tirrenia) will be merged into Moby and the sum put on the table from Aponte to rescue the ‘blue whale’ group “exceed and replace” the EUR 6 million that Onorato Armatori intended to inject in Moby.
The ‘concordato’ procedure under the bankruptcy law at the Court of Milan is intended to receive the final green light and to be completed before the end of 2022; instead the debt restructuring plan will last for the next three years (up to 2025).
Lenders and bondholders “will see their credits satisfied to the extent of 63.6% plus interest at 3% through the cash flows generated” by the Moby operating company (OpCo) and the company that owns the ferries (ShipCo). OpCo “will pay time charter rates in favor of the ShipCo for a total of EUR 55.6 million. Finally – it is also reported in the plan – it will proceed to the repurchase of the ships in 2025 through a refinancing plan which will be based on a price of EUR 220 million for a company expected to generate, at that date, an EBITDA of approximately EUR 100 million”.
The ShipCo “will sell at the end of 2022 both the ships JANAS and BITHIA for EUR 65 million and in 2023 the ferry ATHARA for EUR 37 million”.
Creditors will also be guaranteed in case of non-performing of the plan through the “possibility of selling the ships on the market and exercising the guarantees obtained, including the pledge of 75% of the shares of OpCo (Moby) held by Onorato Armatori”.
The Vincenzo Onorato-controlled ferry group will also dismiss “assets non-core and not functional to the industrial plan, including in particular: the tugboat division (valued EUR 50 million in 2022), the ships MOBY CORSE (2.9 million), MOBY ZAZA (4.8 million) and GIUSEPPE SA (2 million in 2022), the real estate properties in Piazza San Babila in Milan (4.8 million) and in Olbia (1.3 million)”. The roro GIUSEPPE SA has already been sold for EUR 4.6 million.
As for the two new ferries ordered and under construction at the Chinese shipyard GSI of Guangzhou, scheduled for delivery in 2022 and 2023, in the ‘rescue plan’ there is no longer any mention about the fact that these contracts (bareboat leasing with ICBC and bare boat charter back) will be transferred within the perimeter of Moby (ShipCo) transferring them from the company Fratelli Onorato Armatori which signed the order.
Moby just specified to Ferry Shipping News that both the ferries MOBY FANTASY and MOBY LEGACY “will be operating on the Livorno – Olbia from 2023 as already announced”.