Bank accelerates D’Amato loan

DEUTSCHE Schiffsbank has demanded that Italian shipping group D’Amato immediately repay a $28.65M loan and has publicly disclosed details of D’Amato’s restructuring plan and its threat to enter Italian bankruptcy.

In the‘amended notice of default, acceleration, cancellation and demand’ dated 15 June, the bank cited a 19 May PriceWaterhouseCooper report that estimated that D’Amato’s revenues would decline this year from $481M in 2008 to $80M. PWC estimated that D’Amato’s net indebtedness had jumped from $62.1M as of 31 December 2007 to $174M as of 31 March 2009. The consultancy also estimated that D’Amato would suffer a net cashflow deficit of $77.3M for April-December 2009.

The bank said D’Amato had asked it and “a large group of other creditors” to participate in a restructuring plan that involves “unilaterally renegotiating and terminating early the group’s charter-in contracts; unilaterally renegotiating and terminating early the group’s FFAs; obtaining external credit of $55.4M to meet the gap in estimated financial requirements; and negotiating a standstill on all loan repayments”.

The bank default notice was filed in US District Court in Louisiana, where Deutsche Schiffsbank obtained an arrest warrant yesterday for the 40,170gt bulker Umberto D’Amato.

(Source:Fairplay International Shipping Weekly)