Mitchell Bruce photo
In short, the deal for Moby AKI and Wonder were to be sold to DFDS and in turn King Seaways and Princess Seaways is off, due to the bad financial situation at Moby, its bank Uni Credit has blocked the release of the mortgage, preventing the sale. Moby say they will seek compensation, but maybe too late as only a few weeks ago they avoided bankruptcy only because of this deal.
DFDS say the King and princess will stay on the route, but only until a solution is found, which could be the Moby AKI and wonder at the bankruptcy auction of Moby if they cant sort their bad situation out.
Mitchell Bruce photo.
On 6 September 2019, DFDS entered into an agreement with the Italian ferry company Moby to acquire two ferries, Moby Wonder and Moby Aki, for deployment on the Amsterdam-Newcastle route.
Moby would in turn acquire the two passenger ferries currently operating on Amsterdam-Newcastle, King Seaways and Princess Seaways.”
The agreement was expected to be completed in the second half of October 2019 but Moby has unfortunately not been able to meet the delivery terms of the agreement. The agreement has therefore been cancelled.
DFDS will continue to explore solutions for a renewal of the ferries on the Amsterdam-Newcastle route in line with the fourth pillar of the WIN23 strategy: Creating more value for passengers.
https://www.dfds-news.com/featured/agreement-with-moby-cancelled/?fbclid=IwAR3RAPNTM7e9B4ea2PxEaYBMCGCi2GwcdtZZ1nA5uLeteMHJsZmH43-KcHw
Rome, Oct. 29 (askanews) – The sale of some ships of the Moby shipping company to the Danes of Dfds was blocked by Unicredit, with “very serious” damages for the Italian group. The president of Moby, Vincenzo Onorato, said after receiving “communication from the Danish company Dfds of the termination of the purchase contracts of the ships Moby Wonder and Moby Aki, as well as of the sale of the ships King Seaways and Princess Seaways. The contracts should have been executed with the delivery of the ships by the second half of October 2019 “.
The resolution “is attributable to the responsibility of Unicredit which, as a security agent, has not given its consent to the release of the mortgages that burden, in favor of all the guaranteed debt, on the ships Moby Aki and Moby Wonder, although it was contractually held to do this “.
“The story is unbelievable and unjustifiable – claims the shipowner – because Moby has requested, as usual, the assent to the cancellation of mortgages since September 20, 2019 and today Unicredit has not even bothered to answer officially, limiting itself guilty to wait the deadline for delivery “.
“Moby – adds Onorato – will act in a court of law against Unicredit to obtain compensation for the very serious damages caused by the latter”