Bridgewater-130

Sold for $ 3.3m to Singaporean buyers (Kim Heng Marine) via auction sale

Three of of Swiber Holdings vessels had been seized in an arrest moved by a syndicate of banks in Singapore on 22 December. All three vessels were arrested at ASL Shipyard, the litigant in the arrest is United Overseas Bank (UOB), acting as security agent for the syndicate of banks that had extended financing to the vessel owner in relation to a sale and leaseback deal. The Business Times reported that court documents obtained by it show that the anchor handling tug supply vessels: SWIBER ELSE-MARIE , SWIBER MARY-ANN and SWIBER ANN-CHRISTINE, were arrested over an outstanding mortgage claim of over US$43.4 million (S$62.7 million). All three vessels were arrested at ASL Shipyard. The Business Times also confirmed that the owner of the three vessels is Bukit Timah Offshore AS (BTO), a vehicle set up by RS Platou Finans Shipping AS under the Norwegian KS system back in 2008, to facilitate the sale and leaseback transaction with a totally owned subsidiary of Swiber Holdings. Under 10 years' bareboat charters, the deal set on BTO to buy the vessels for the purpose of leasing them to Swiber. source: The Online Citizen