Tall Tales But True

An interesting article i just read...

Grab a stiff drink and follow if you will

Goes something like this

a) European company charters a tanker ship from a South Korean Shipowner

b) Ship gets attacked by pirates causing much despair, delays and costs including a multimiliion dollar ransom

c) Principals disagree as to the opportioning of the costs and enter arbitration

d) South Korean shipowner then files for bankruptsy hence avoinding any liabilty with the following being revealed in court transcripts

(my language but here is the crux)

We bought said ship from Greeks in 2008 for approx USD 140 million dollars (peak period). Due to various loan agreements today in 2012 we actually owe USD 187 million on the ship. And here is the kicker....due to the bad market, poor cashflow, this arbitration etc we just sold the ship for a lamentable USD 29 million bucks.....OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(where did the 150 million smakeroonies go?)

The ship was actually valued at USD 34 million but due to the fact the Somali Pirates are not very good house keepers (who would have thought?) damages to the vessel are estimated at 5 mill (thank you very much!)

And guess what...........the poor managers who contributed to this terrible line of consequences will probably go into hiatus for 2 years and start a new company from scratch and play poker once again...

No wonder people are nervous.........banks included!

Cheers
The Virtual Shipbroker