SHIPYARD NEWS

Short-term loan steadies troubled FSG

6 years ago

A short-term loan of €5 million is helping insolvent German shipyard Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) to prepare for a resumption of suspended shipbuilding activity this summer, writes Tom Todd.

Liekut was FSG’s last delivery in March. Yard now hopes to resume work in early Summer.

The cash injection came from Lars Windhorst whose investment firm Tennor Holding has been the sole owner of FSG since last year.

An FSG statement said the Windhorst cash was a bridging loan which would give the yard some short-term liquidity and help secure essential operations.

It said it would also enable the yard to “prepare for a resumption of work on the completion of Hull Nr 774” – a reference to the only ship still at FSG, the LNG-driven RoPax ferry Honfleur for Brittanny Ferries. But FSG stressed the cash was not enough to allow actual work to resume on Honfleur and that further financing would be needed.

Costing €195 million, the 42,000gt Honfleur, driven by four Wärtsilä DF engines and described as Europe’s largest LNG cruise ferry, should have been completed last year but is still being fitted out.

FSG operations have been suspended and its work force on short time since March, not only because of Coronavirus but also because of a disastrous year in which FSG posted huge losses due to delivery delays on another big ferry – the €150 million, 54,975gt Irish Ferries newbuild W.B.Yeats.

In February FSG suffered another blow with the cancellation of a €438 million order from Australia’s TT Line for two LNG/Diesel fuelled passenger ferries.

FSG went into self-administered insolvency in late April. A team of managers and insolvency specialists is now introducing provisional restructuring measures designed to get the yard up and running again in early summer. But a date remains uncertain.

“We cannot say at the moment exactly when that will be”, said FSG. “At the moment we are examining the completion costs for Hull No. 774 and want to secure the financing for this”.

Lars Windorst said: “We remain committed to FSG. The self-administration team will work with Tennor to develop a viable concept for the future”. He also said FSG was in close contact with former FSG owner, Norwegian shipowner Siem. It has to date had eight RoRo ships built at FSG. The last, Liekut, was delivered in March and others are reported still on order.