The judicial sale of a pair of MR tankers scheduled to take place on Friday in Rotterdam was cancelled after an interested third party spent substantial amounts to meet creditors' demands.
The 50,000-dwt Marvin Faith and Marvin Confidence (both built 2018) had been under arrest in Rotterdam earlier this year to recoup $328,000 in unpaid seafarers' wages up to July. Including salaries incurred over the past two months, the amount actually paid is expected to be even higher.
“Both ship auctions have been cancelled, as the crews’ claims, including costs and expenses, have just now been paid in full,” said Arent Jan Oskam, an attorney for law firm Wybenga Advocaten, which represents about 25 seafarers from Russia, Georgia and Turkey.
“This means that under Dutch law, we are obligated to cancel the auctions. There will be no judicial sale tomorrow,” Oskam added.
The Dutch lawyer did not reveal which party offered to settle the seafarers' claims.
A parallel case of a sistership auctioned in Piraeus earlier this month, however, points to Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).
Grandest Shipping, an entity based in Hong Kong, tried to block the auction on 1 September of the 50,000-dwt Marvin Independence (built 2018).
Just two days before the auction, Grandest Shipping paid $9,700 to settle claims by Seven Seas Maritime Services, a Singapore-based maritime company that had been left unpaid for stores and provisions.
The Piraeus auction, however, went nevertheless ahead as a new creditor emerged. As soon as Seven Seas Maritime declared its claim against the Marvin Independence was met, the ship’s own manager Marvin Shipping Services jumped in to ask that the sale take place as scheduled.
Greek auction court documents published on the internet do not reveal the amount Marvin claims it was owed. Sources close to the company put the claim at about $600,000 in maintenance and other expenses incurred after the ship was left idle in January.
Marvin managers told TradeWinds earlier this year that the three tankers were auctioned over owners’ debts after the poor tanker market “affected the trade of the fleet”.
Who sold what to whom?
The controversy lifts the lid on a wider dispute that pitches the three IRISL-controlled entities, which ordered the vessels at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard at $35m each, against the new companies they were registered under when the ships were arrested.
Grandest Shipping, one of these three entities, claims in litigation filed in Greece that it and its affiliates Grace Shipping and Expander Shipping agreed in 2018 to hand them over to Marvin Shipping under a bareboat charter and that they never consented to relinquishing the actual ownership of the vessels.
According to Grandest, however, the ship’s Greek managers eventually modified the ships' registration with the Panama flag to new owners, away from their original ones.
In the case of the Marvin Independence, they are said to have done so by producing a memorandum of agreement (MOA) and a bill of sale for a $25m resale deal signed in the summer of 2018 – just a few weeks before Hyundai Mipo delivered the newbuildings.
Grandest has argued in Greek court that these documents aren't genuine because they haven't been signed by any of its authorised directors.
Grandest also claimed that neither it nor its affiliates have received any money for the three vessels from Marvin's clients – neither from any resale or bareboat charter deal.
The Hong Kong-based entity has vowed to pursue the matter in London arbitration, as well as in maritime courts in Greece and Panama. A first hearing is set to take place in Piraeus on 27 September.
IRISL’s potential challenges already affected market interest for the ships. A Greek company bought the Marvin Independence in the 1 September auction for just $17.1m. VesselsValue and MSI Horizon estimate the ship is worth about twice as much.
A lawyer for Marvin Shipping, who also represents Diamond Product Tankers, the registered owner of the Marvin Independence, declined to comment on an ongoing case.
A source close to the Greek company, however, said that Grandest's arguments are groundless, that the bill of sale and the MOA are genuine and that nobody challenged the ships’ registration under their new owners for more than two years.
Lawyers for Grandest and managers at IRISL didn't respond to a request for comment.
