Rickmers Maritime pays US$2.6m to banks

THE trustee-manager of Rickmers Maritime, a distressed container ship business trust, said that it has issued a US$2.6 million voluntary prepayment of cash that had been secured for senior loan facilities extended by a syndicate of banks led by BNP Paribas.

The syndicate includes ING Bank, The Bank of Nova Scotia Asia, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

The trustee-manager said that the payment deleverages the trust and saves on interest costs using cash that is not available for other purposes. Rickmers Maritime is being wound up.