Creditors have managed to offload just one of three ferries in the former fleet of ferry company NEL Lines that were auctioned in Greece last week.
Sources at the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) said a buyer was found for the largest of the trio, the 15,100-gt European Express (built 1974).
The vessel was auctioned on 3 August with a minimum reserve of €1.26m ($1.5m) plus VAT of 24%. This is far below the €1.97m creditors asked in a failed sale attempt in March.
Fifth sale attempt
It was the PPA’s fifth attempt to sell the vessel, which was built at NKK Corp in Shizuoka, Japan. A port spokesman declined to identify the preferred buyer, the number of bids received or the price that the vessel ultimately fetched.
“Official announcements will be made in due time,” he said.
Auctioneers at the nearby Port Authority of Lavrio (OLL) were less lucky. Less then 48 hours before the sale of the 5,000-gt ropax Taxiarchis (built 1976), also planned for 3 August, proceedings were called off.
In a statement, the OLL did not elaborate on why it cancelled the auction, but said it may soon decide to call a fresh one.
Meanwhile, the Taxiarchis has been towed to the nearby Spanopoulos shipyard on the island of Salamina. OLL was to ask for a minimum reserve of €850,000 plus VAT for the Taxiarchis — a vessel that the port authority called “dangerous and harmful” in its present state for port facilities.
Scandinavian built
Pre-auction documents describe the Framnaes Mekaniske Verksted-built Taxiarchis, which has been laid up in Lavrio since June 2015, as listing to port and suffering from advancing corrosion.
An e-auction scheduled for 1 August for a more valuable, former NEL ship, also failed to get off the ground.
Sources close to the sale of the 4,900-gt Kalli P (ex-Panagia Thalassini, built 1996) said the proceedings were postponed, possibly until September. The vessel, built at Alstom Leroux Naval in St Malo, France, had a minimum asking price of €4m. It is being sold on behalf of Greece’s Piraeus Bank and other creditors.
A further former NEL vessel, the 3,330-gt Alkioni (built 1995), is to be sold in an e-auction on 29 August. Aegean Baltic Bank is pushing that sale, and the minimum reserve price for the catamaran high-speed craft is set at €1.2m.
