John Fredriksen-controlled SFL Corp is among four shipowners that are out millions as liquidators propose to pay out a half-penny on the pound to unsecured creditors of a failed English container line.
But restructuring filings reveal that the creditors themselves contributed to bringing down the company.
Creditors’ committee documents for Allseas Global Project Logistics (AGPL) say Oslo-based, New York-listed SFL was behind a bunkers arrest at Rotterdam that sealed its fate last autumn.
Allseas is not related to similarly named Dutch and Greek shipowning companies.
Allseas Global Logistics transformed its AGPL subsidiary into a container line in 2021 with a series of charters of multipurpose ships pressed into service as container carriers, but soon shifted to small boxships when it could find one, at reported rates of up to $100,000 per day.
In August 2022, it chartered SFL’s 1,740-teu Green Ace (built 2005) for two years just before its terminal crisis. It defaulted almost immediately and never paid SFL any of the agreed daily hire of $50,000.
As TradeWinds reported at the time, SFL pulled the ship promptly and placed it with other charterers at shorter terms and lower rates.
Almost immediately, AGPL faced the arrest of bunkers on another chartered-in ship, Shanghai-based Zhengdong Shipping’s 35,200-dwt, 1,878-teu Allseas Pioneer (built 2003). That arrest at Rotterdam led to a cascade of actions by other parties including container lessor Triton, which sought to recover boxes on the vessel.
In October, TradeWinds reported that AGPL’s parent, Manchester-based freight forwarder Allseas Global Logistics, had thrown in the towel and sought the help of advisor Opus Restructuring.
But what was previously unknown is that SFL itself was behind the Allseas Pioneer bunkers arrest. The link was unknown before the disclosure of the administrator’s report through the UK’s Companies House.
The quantum of SFL’s eventual damage claim will depend on the difference between its actual earnings in the period and the $36.5m it was supposed to earn over two years with AGPL.
But the payout pool is tiny in comparison to debts, and London-based administrator Opus Restructuring has proposed a distribution of a half-penny on the pound.
This week, AGPL was to have appointed Robert Starkins and Christopher Jones of London’s Grant Thornton as liquidators through the High Court of Justice business and property courts in Manchester.
Opus Restructuring and Allseas Global Logistics have been contacted for comment.
The estate of the failed venture still faces claims from shipowners, bunkerers and others that could stretch up to two years into the future based on lost earnings on terminated charters.
Shipowners that are being offered fractional settlements include Goldenport Shipmanagement for its 1,819-teu San Alfonso (built 2007) and Levant Fleet for its 1,730-teu Amo (built 1997), as well as Zhengdong Shipping for the Allseas Pioneer and SFL for the Green Ace.
Allseas managing director Darren Wright was not immediately available for comment.
SFL chief executive Ole Hjertaker declined to comment on the specifics of the case, or whether SFL’s lawyers are pursuing parent Allseas Global Logistics.
“It is our oldest and smallest ship,” he commented. “But it was too bad their business plan didn’t work out.”
