A Danish tanker operator and charterer has gone into liquidation, with one owner reporting a default on charter terms.
Cornerstone Maritime was set up in 2019 by broker Simon Toft, who owns 100% of the company.
The Danish government’s central business register CVR posted a document dated Monday listing Cornerstone as in voluntary liquidation.
The liquidator is named as Thomas Ingham, of Ingham Administration in Copenhagen, who was appointed in July. He has been contacted for comment.
The document also shows that Toft resigned as a director at the same time.
“The company’s creditors are encouraged to report their claims to the liquidator. Claims must be reported no later than three months from today’s date,” CVR said in the filing.
One shipowner with a product tanker on charter to Cornerstone told TradeWinds: “We are concerned because an agreement was reached with Cornerstone and they have defaulted on it and now we cannot get any contact with them.”
The company was believed to be operating five handysize tankers.
It is not clear whether they have been redelivered to their owners in countries including Dubai and Indonesia.
Toft is a former Maersk Brokers and Wonsild man. He has also owned and run broker Casos Shipping since 2013.
Cornerstone and Casos have been contacted for comment via phone and email. Cornerstone has no known website.
Losses in four years
An email to Cornerstone was returned as undeliverable, while one to Casos was not answered, but was not returned.
Managing director Toft was not immediately available on his mobile telephone on Friday. On Monday, the number was unavailable. A separate phone listed for Casos was not answered.
Company accounts on Danish financial reporting website Proff show net losses for the years 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023, with a profit for 2021.
TradeWinds reported in April 2019 that Cornerstone was seeking more tonnage after agreeing a deal to take over its first managed tanker, the 15,900-dwt Ierax (built 1998).
The tanker was listed as owned by Spitsbergen Inc and was managed by Fareast Shipmanagement of Hong Kong.
The company said then that it had “strong expectations about further expansion in 2019 when it comes to tonnage as well as personnel”.
Toft told TradeWinds the company would focus mainly on tankers. “But we are open to looking into other segments if profitable,” he added.
“Our expectation is to grow with an untargeted number of oil/chemical tankers within the intermediate segment (13,000-20,000 dwt) as well as the MR segment (up to 50,000 dwt).”
Toft said he was not in a rush to recruit more staff.
But he would look to add people with strong networks and chartering backgrounds, as the “philosophy is to grow organically and not necessarily acquisitively as seen too many times in the industry”.
Casos Shipping remains active as a brokerage.
