Fleet-owning unit of bankrupt OW Bunker taken over: fleet manager

[COPENHAGEN] OW Tanker, a unit of bankrupt OW Bunker and owner of its marine fuel supply ships, has been taken over by a newly-created company, the fleet manager told Reuters on Wednesday.

OW Bunker, the largest ship fuel supplier in the world, collapsed earlier this month after it said it had lost almost US$300 million in hedging losses and unauthorised credit lines given in Singapore.

Henrik Pedersen said the takeover by Alba Tanker ApS, which has the trustees of the bankrupt company on its board, is part of the process of securing assets for the estate. "We are not a very big part of the company," Pedersen said by telephone. "We're the ship-owning part of OW Bunker and Trading. And that was our biggest client, of course, but we have always been run as a separate company." OW Tanker owned 10 vessels and chartered 19, according to its website. Pedersen said it employs around 115 people, mostly vessel crews, and is now looking for new clients.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said it had agreed with ING Bank NV and OW Bunker's trustees to work together in recouping some US$750 million the company owes to a group of 13 banks, including ING.

The trustees from Danish law firms Gorrissen Federspiel and Plesner, who are on the board of Alba Tanker ApS, were not immediately available to say how the takeover of OW Tanker could relate to the debt owed to the banks.

REUTERS