Singapore-based offshore contractor Swiber Holdings Ltd, the judicial manager of Swiber that was appointed in August, has commenced a voluntary liquidation of Swiber Offshore Marine. KPMG partners will act as joint and provisional liquidators.
Swinder Holdings also announced on November 21st that Swiber Atlantis had agreed to dispose of cargo barge Sea Horizon, which was mortgaged in favour of significant creditor bank DBS, for $10.25m. Sea Horizon (built 1977, 8,867grt) had ceased operations and was not capable of being utilized unless significant rectification works were performed. It had been put in “Off-Hire” status as of June 20th 2016 at a shipyard in Singapore where it has since remained.
In the meantime, Swiber has been given a six-month extension by the Singapore stock exchange before it has to publish its results.
Back in late July Swiber dropped its liquidation plans, announcing that it intended to restructure instead. At that time it said that it faced $25.9m in demands from creditors, although its financial statements put its assets at $1.99bn and its liabilities at $1.49bn. Singapore-based bank DBS – the biggest lender in South-East Asia, said at the time that it had about S$700m (then US$523m) in exposure to Swiber, and that it expected to recover about half that amount.