Swissco judicial managers get US$28.5m offer from white knight investor

THE court-appointed judicial managers (JMs) of Swissco Holdings have secured an offer valued at US$28.5 million from a white knight investor for its offshore support vessel business.

The JMs from EY, in announcing the deal penned on Sept 18, said that the offer from fund house Asian Strategic Turnaround Ventures Pte Ltd involves the sale of shares in three Swissco-related entities and 26 vessels.

The fund house will acquire all issued and paid up share capital held by Swissco International Pte Ltd (SIPL) in Swissco Offshore Pte Ltd (SOPL) and Singapore Marine (SM) Logistics.

It will also take over the 49 per cent stake that SIPL holds in Malaysia-incorporated SW Marine.

In addition, the white knight investor will extend a US$4 million loan to discharge the mortgages that SOPL has in respect to its JTC leases.

The transaction is expected to result in a net loss from disposal of US$12.7 million based on the aggregate net book value of the assets earmarked for the disposal as at Dec 31, 2016.

The deal carries a long-stop date of nine months from the signing of the sale and purchase agreement. It remains subject to certain conditions, including approval of the shareholders of the holding company at an extraordinary general meeting and the sanction by the High Court of two schemes of arrangement to be drawn up in respect of the proposed divestments of SOPL and SM Log.

Asian Strategic Turnaround Ventures has placed a US$3.15 million deposit after penning the deal, with the remainder to be paid up on completion.

Swissco and SOPL entered into judicial management last November after the listed holding company slipped into a US$296 million quarterly loss on booking massive impairments.