3 bareboat charters of Emas Offshore's unit terminated

EMAS Offshore Limited said late Tuesday that three of Emas Offshore (M) Sdn Bhd's (EMM) bareboat charters have been terminated.

Its indirect wholly owned subsidiary received three separate notices of termination dated Nov 2, 2017. The termination notices were in relation to the Lewek Ariel, Lewek Lynx and Lewek Alkaid vessels.

For Lewek Ariel, beleaguered offshore and marine group Ezra Holdings Ltd had issued a Guarantee and Indemnity dated May 23, 2014, as guarantor in favour of the owner of the vessel in respect of EMM's obligations under the Ariel charter.

Emas Offshore is a majority-owned unit of Ezra, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Ariel owner alleged, among other things, that pursuant to "various termination events and breaches of material obligations of the Ariel charter caused by EMM which have occurred and are continuing", it has asked to terminate the Ariel Charter with immediate effect.

For Lewek Lynx, Ezra Holdings had also issued a charter Guarantee and Indemnity dated Oct 31, 2014, as guarantor in favour of the Lynx Owner in respect of EMM's obligations under the Lynx Charter.

The owner of the vessel has asked to terminate the Lynx Charter with immediate effect in relation to various termination events and breaches of material obligations of the Lynx Charter.

This was similar for the Lewek Alkaid vessel, where Ezra had issued a Guarantee and Indemnity dated May 7, 2014, as guarantor in favour of the Alkaid owner.

All three owners have asked for the vessels to be safely redelivered at a safe anchorage in Singapore or other port or places required by the owners.

Emas Offshore Limited and EMM are seeking legal advice for the notices of termination and the company is assessing the impact against the group.

Both companies are in discussions with the Ariel and the Alkaid owner as well as the owners' principal financier to enter into a new commercial arrangement.

Emas said that the Lewek Lynx is currently "off-hire", and the firm is also in discussions with the owner and its principal financier to effect re-delivery of the vessel, and to enter into a new commercial arrangement.

Emas has suspended trading on the Singapore Exchange since March this year. It had earlier warned of plans to ask for a voluntary suspension of its shares, as the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway had ordered the bourse there to suspend trading in the counter effective from March 3 market closing as it had yet to release its audited annual report for 2016.

The deadline to do so was end-2016. The suspension will be lifted when the audited annual financial information for 2016 has been published.