A new investor is helping Germany’s Flensburger Shipyard (FSG) to recover from cash-flow problems reports Tom Todd.
FSG – Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft – announced global investment group Sapinda Holding had bought 76% of its business from yard owners Siem Europe – a purchase which reports said came with a €33 million injection of fresh capital.
FSG said the deal with Siem was supported by customers and suppliers alike and “will ensure the continuation of FSG’s business operations”. It came along with news that MD Ruediger Fuchs had been replaced by Alexander Gregg-Smith.
Norwegian based Siem acquired FSG in 2014 when the yard was experiencing earlier financial difficulties. Since then it has brought in considerable new work , particularly offshore-related. The yard on the German-Danish border has long been a global leader in the building of RoRo, ConRo and RoPax tonnage,
Under the deal now with Sapinda, Siem remains an active shareholder and has a majority on the yard’s Supervisory Board. Reports said Siem was also waiving some outstanding FSG debts – further aiding the yard’s recovery.
A spokesman for FSG, which employs about 650, told Maritime Journal that delays in 2018 in Irish Ferries’ €150 million, 54,975gt cruise ferry W.B.Yeats, had caused “considerable losses”. The ship, billed as FSG’s biggest and most complex to date, had been due for delivery last July but was handed over in December. It is being followed by a second, even bigger, cruise ferry in 2020.
Contract penalty payments resulting from the W.B.Yeats delay reportedly depleted funds earmarked for further newbuilding at FSG and could not have come at a worse time for the busy yard. According to Rüdiger Fuchs, nine newbuilds – four RoRo cargo and five RoPax ships worth a total of about a billion Euros – were on order late last year for delivery up to late 2021.
For delivery to Brittany Ferries in May is the 42,200gt Honfleur, described as Europe’s largest LNG cruise ferry and the first French passenger ship powered by LNG with four Wärtsilä DF engines.
Two further LNG-powered DF passenger ferries are also on order with FSG. For delivery in 2021 they are for Australia’s TT- Line and are together costing about €438 million.
