The Sheriff of Singapore is making a second effort to auction a vessel from the fleet of struggling local operator EMAS Offshore.
The High Court officer will sell the 10,800-bhp anchor handling tug supply vessel Lewek Penguin (built 2007) via sealed tender, with bids due in at the sheriff’s office by 3pm on 21 February.
The buyer will have to pay SGD 16,650 ($12,200) on top of its bid price for bunkers onboard.
The Pan United-built Lewek Penguin was arrested last August by ST Engineering Marine over a shipyard repair claim totalling SGD 852,346. An attempt was made to sell it via judicial auction in December, but the bids were deemed too low.
Well-maintained
A court-mandated survey of the Lewek Penguin, currently laid up at ST Engineering Marine, describes it as well maintained and fit for purpose. However, with the offshore sector still deep in the doldrums, the ship will probably be of interest only to bargain hunters. This has proved to be the case in almost all auctions involving offshore vessels over the past couple of years.
Singapore brokers working the offshore sector said it is hard to peg a possible price on the Lewek Penguin, as sales of vessels of a similar age and capability have been few and far between.
The last reported deal was last March, when Tschudi Offshore sold the 10,880-bhp ITC Cyclone (built 2008) and ITC Chinook (built 2009) to Silver Maritime of Singapore for $3.5m each.
Pricing ideas are said to have dropped significantly since then, with VesselsValue suggesting a current market value in the region of $2m.
EMAS’s financial problems are well known in the market. Last October, it looked to have found a white knight when it was revealed that Udenna Corp of the Philippines would pump nearly $73.3m into the company to facilitate the restructuring of its balance sheet, as well as buying some of its vessels now secured to various bank lenders.
Udenna had until the end of November to complete its due diligence, as well as propose and finalise mutually acceptable terms and conditions for a formal binding agreement. Nothing further has been heard about the proposal from either company.
