On 6 September, Danish ferry company DFDS and its Italian counterpart Moby agreed to each acquire two of the other’s ferries. DFDS would deploy the two ferries on the Amsterdam-Newcastle route to expand capacity. Yet, the deal has now been revoked.
DFDS would acquire the Moby Wonder and Moby Aki. These vessels, built in 2001 and 2005, would replace the current ships, the King Seaways and Princess Seaways from 1987 and 1986. In turn, these two would be sold to the Italian company.
In a statement, DFDS says: ‘The agreement was expected to be completed in the second half of October 2019, but Moby has unfortunately not been able to meet the delivery terms of the agreement. The agreement has therefore been cancelled.’
Moby responded with a statement of their own explaining that the company has been unable to deliver ‘the two vessels free of the mortgages that have been granted to Unicredit as Security Agent for Moby’s secured financings. Moby believes that Unicredit was contractually obliged to provide consent to the release of the vessel mortgages as security agent, and intends to raise this issue formally with Unicredit as Security Agent and with its lenders.’
DFDS on the Lookout for Other Solutions
The company entered into the agreement to expand capacity on the Amsterdam-Newcastle route. The new ferries would have resulted in a forty per cent increase in freight capacity on an annual basis. Passenger capacity would increase by five per cent. The company says it will now explore other solutions for renewal of the ferries.
‘The two current ferries offer a great service today, and they will continue doing so until a new solution with new ferries is in place,’ says Peder Gellert, EVP and Head of DFDS’ Ferry Division. ‘Therefore, this will not change our plans for developing the route, it will merely delay it.’
Picture (top): Once refurbished, this is what the new DFDS ferries on the Amsterdam-Newcastle route would have looked like.
