Two historic German shipyards that have just over three weeks until they go out of business have called for investors to step up and save them.
The FSG-Nobiskrug shipyard group, which has two shipyards, one in Rendsburg, the other in Flensburg, on December 23 announced it had filed for insolvency due to market pressures, rising material costs and less demand for certain vessels.
Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) has a history of building RoRo ships and ferries, and latterly began developing vessels for the offshore wind sector, whereas Nobiskrug, in Rendsburg, is a well-known superyacht builder.
Administrators and lawyers at Brinkmann & Partner (B&P) and Reimer said several interested investors had already visited the sites within 10 days of the insolvency notices, which they said showed ‘the high strategic importance of shipyards for defence and the energy transition’.
A short-term lifeline was secured from German state bank Schleswig-Holstein, which has handed over enough to keep the business going until January 31.
”The future is dependent on the successful search for investors,” said B&P and Reimer. “These would have to revitalise the sites by completing existing and new orders.”
FSG was founded in 1872. After several changes in ownership, in 2020 it became part of the Tennor Group. It is not clear what the ownership status will be as insolvency proceedings continue and new investors are sought.
