The Rickmers Group News

Ship management company V.Group has announced the appointment of Bjoern Sprotte as chief executive officer, Ship Management.Based in Hamburg and reporting directly to V.Group CEO René Kofod-Olsen, Sprotte replaces Franck Kayser, who has requested to refocus his overall responsibilities and will be assuming leadership of the Group’s activities in Denmark.Sprotte joins V.Group from OSM Maritime Group, where he spent four years in a number of senior roles, including chief operating officer…

Hamburg entrepreneur Erck Rickmers has sold his ship management and ship brokerage activities. Effective January 1, 2018, Bremen-based Zeaborn Group acquired all shares in E.R. Schiffahrt GmbH & Cie. KG and shipbroker Harper Petersen & Co. With the takeover, Zeaborn’s shipping fleet under commercial and technical management has been expanded by 61 container vessels and 20 bulk carriers to more than 165 vessels. All staff, approximately 200 employees ashore and 2,800 at sea, will transfer to the Zeaborn Group. Nils Aden, currently chief executive officer of E.R.

German shipping group Rickmers, which filed for insolvency in June, said on Thursday its ship management unit had the all-clear to continue business after it was bought by Bremen-based Zeaborn Group and owner Bertram Rickmers. The company said in a statement that a consortium consisting of Zeaborn and Bertram Rickmers bought the division, which has its main sites in Hamburg, Singapore and Cyprus after they won a bidding process. "It has only taken a few months after preliminary self-administration of the assets of Rickmers Holding AG was ordered to find a solution for continuing the business…

Board of HSH Nordbank AG has surprisingly denied approval of the term sheet regarding the financial restructuring of the Rickmers Group, says a press release from the group. Rickmers Holding AG strives for restructuring in self-administration on the basis of continuation of the business and vessel operations, the release said. On 19 April 2017, Rickmers Holding AG reached an understanding with, inter alios, HSH Nordbank AG on a term sheet regarding the restructuring of material financial liabilities of the Rickmers Group that was subject to corporate approval of HSH Nordbank AG and contingent on the restructuring of the bond 2013/2018 issued by Rickmers Holding AG.

Following last month’s news that Singapore Based Rickmers Maritime Trust is to be wound up, Rickmers Holding AG released a statement on April 19 reporting that an understanding had been reached regarding restructuring of the Rickmers Group. It is understood that sole shareholder Bertram Rickmers will reduce his shareholding to below 25 percent, while the remaining 75 percent will be taken by lenders and bondholders. The value today of the Rickmers Group (a Rickmers Holding AG subsidiary) sits at $740 million, according to VesselsValue.

Marking further consolidation in the breakbulk and project cargo sector, Rickmers Group said it has sold its business operations of Rickmers-Linie to ZEABORN. Rickmers-Linie GmbH & Cie. KG and MCC Marine Consulting & Contracting GmbH & Cie. KG, which are both fully-owned by Rickmers Holding AG, reached agreement to sell their respective operating businesses to ZEABORN Chartering GmbH & Co. KG on February 7, 2017. The planned sale, subject to the approval of the financing banks of the Rickmers Group and subject to anti-trust authorities…

Hamburg, 11 November 2016 – In the first nine months of 2016, the Rickmers Group generated consolidated revenues of € 373.6 million. This represents a decline of 15 percent versus the previous year’s period (€ 439.7 million). This fall is due mainly to the persistently strained market situation through the expiry of further high-margin charter contracts, temporary fleet idleness and follow-on charters at current low market rates. Furthermore, lower revenues from freight and a stronger fall in capacity utilisation in the project cargo area also had a negative impact. As a specific consequence of this revenue decline, the operating result before interest…

Rickmers Holding AG and E.R. Capital Holding have jointly decided not to pursue the merger of their ship management activities. For many years the companies have worked together in ship insurance and ship brokerage. These partnerships are to be intensified and extended to other ship management activities. Both companies keep the content of the merger discussions in confidence. Rickmers Holding AG will continue to pursue its strategy, particularly in respect of expanding the fleet under third-party management. Additionally, processes are to be optimised, structures streamlined and profitability increased. Ignace Van Meenen, CEO of the Rickmers Group, explained the objective: “We aim to continue establishing and expanding customer relationships in an ongoing and focused way.

In the first half of 2016 the Rickmers Group generated consolidated revenues of €249.3 million ($279 mln), 13.9 percent lower than in the corresponding period in 2015 (€289.6 million, $324 mln). The main underlying factors are the persistently strained market situation, expiring high-margin charter contracts, follow-on charters at the prevalent low market rates, lower freight earnings, and a sharper decline in capacity utilization in the project cargo business. The Group’s operating result before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) saw a clear fall of 36.1 per cent to € 87.7 million ($98.2 mln)  (H1 2015: € 137.4 million) ($153.87 mln )…

Rickmers-Linie, the Hamburg based liner service specialist for breakbulk, heavy lift and project cargoes takes over the activities of tramp and chartering specialist Nordana Project & Chartering with offices in Copenhagen, Bangkok, Singapore and Houston. The business will continue under the name and brand “NPC” and become an independent division supplementing the Rickmers-Linie segment within the Rickmers Group effective 1 July 2016. In the new arrangement NPC will operate a multipurpose heavy lift fleet worldwide in the size range between 8,000 and 21,000 dwt with a lifting capacity of up to 500 tonnes. The core fleet will be made up of Nordana’s 12,000 dwt heavy lift vessels and will include Thai flag vessels.

A special loading operation has taken place in Bremerhaven, involving Rickmers-Linie’s MV Rickmers Hamburg, a 485-metric-ton Siemens gas turbine, a 465-metric-ton Siemens generator and German project freight forwarder Bertling. Not only did the operation involve the transport of the largest gas turbine ever manufactured by Siemens, it also marked the first call of this class of Rickmers-Linie ship – a 30,000dwt multipurpose heavy lift vessel – in Bremerhaven, the place where the Rickmers Group was founded in 1834.

Rickmers Maritime, which is affiliated to the Hamburg-based Rickmers Group,  slumped to a $129.2 million loss in 2015 from a $16 million profit a year earlier on increased write offs on the value of its ships and depressed container charter rates. The Container ship operator's charter revenue from its fleet of 16 container ships shrank by 17 percent to $108.5 million from $130.3 million last time. The bulk of the full-year loss was in the fourth quarter when the deficit widened to $129.6 million from $16 million last time, due mainly to an impairment charge of $128.4 million. This took the impairment bill for the full year to $148 million against $63 million in 2014.

Rickmers-Linie, the Hamburg-based specialist in worldwide liner services for heavy lifts and project cargoes, has successfully completed audits by DNV GL which took place between 3 and 5 November. As a consequence the company, which belongs to Rickmers Group, received new certificates for its integrated management system which covers the three segments of quality (ISO 9001: 2008), Environment (ISO 14001: 2004) and Occupational Safety and Health at Work (OHSAS 18001: 2007). The new certificates are again valid for a period of three years. Rickmers-Linie has already been certified for many years according to ISO 9001 standards. The standard for occupational health and safety according to OHSAS 18001, and the management system for the environment according to ISO 14001 were added in 2010.

Rickmers Group will migrate to multiband VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) from Marlink Maritime VSAT for its fleet of 90+ vessels including containerships, bulk carriers and heavy lift vessels, in a move  that aims to improve operational efficiency through better integration of ship and shore side networks in addition to providing internet connectivity for crew welfare. High bandwidth availability on Marlink’s Ku-band ‘Plus’ maritime VSAT services will enable Rickmers to significantly enhance on board IT opportunities while introducing the possibility of live monitoring…

The Singapore-listed and China-based shipbuilder Yangzijiang Shipbuilding has secured new orders worth $730m, including two very large gas carriers, between September and October. The  two 84,000 cbm very large gas carriers (VLGCs) were ordered by Shanghai Zhenrong Energy. Yangzijiang had been in talks to secure the two VLGCs since early this year, and the latest order confirmation has reinforced the company’s progress into building higher specification and higher value ships. Apart from the two VLGCs, the orders include four 11,800 TEU container ships ordered by Pacific International Lines (PIL), four 3,800 TEU boxships for Hamburg Sud and two 1,900 TEU ships for Rickmers Group.

The Rickmers Group informs it has taken delivery of the first two in a series of three 9,300 TEU newbuilds acquired by the group in April while already under construction. The containerships were built at the South Korean STX shipyard and are on long-term charter to CMA CGM. The first of the three ships is the seventh vessel to carry the name R.C. Rickmers, which can trace its heritage back to the founder of the Rickmers Shipyard, and is a reference to the history and shipping tradition of the Rickmers family. Rickmer Clasen Rickmers opened a shipbuilding workshop in Bremerhaven in 1834. Dr. Ignace Van Meenen, Rickmers Group CEO, said, “The seventh R.C. Rickmers, a newbuild that has just been delivered, is a modern, large and energy-efficient containership. The new R.C. The first R.C.

Rickmers Group published its Half-Year 2015 results, reporting that the company increased its revenues in the first half of 2015 by 6.6 percent from €271.1  million ($301 million USD) to €289.6 million ($321 million), despite the persistently strained market situation and a number of charter contracts up for renewal. The consolidated operating result before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) improved by a considerable 35.4 percent to €137.4 million ($152.3 million)  (H1 2014: € 101.5 million). This clear increase in the operating result is due to the successful implementation of the sustainable cost-management programme in particular at Rickmers-Linie, and is also attributable to favourable exchange-rate effects following the rise in the value of the U.S. dollar.

Iran released a Marshall-Islands flagged container ship Maersk Tigris and its crew has been released by Iranian authorities after the cargo company that owns it resolved a financial dispute which had been the subject of a court order. “The Maersk container ship was released and it has left Iranian territorial waters,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham. It will now continue its scheduled voyage to Jebel Ali, in the United Arab Emirates, where it will be met by representatives from Rickmers and others. The Maersk incident coincided with heightened tension between regional arch-rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia over the civil war in Yemen, in which they support opposing sides.

Iran has released a Marshall-Islands flagged container ship and its crew which were seized last month in one of the world's major oil shipping lanes, the vessel's operator said on Thursday. It confirmed reports from Iran. The vessel was diverted on April 28 by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had said the vessel would be let go once a years-old debt case with the ship's charterer Maersk Line was settled. "Rickmers Group is pleased to report today its managed container vessel Maersk Tigris with 24 crew members on board has been officially released by Iranian authorities following an order from the court in Bandar Abbas, Iran," the operator and manager said in a statement. "Earlier Maersk Line put up a security in relation to the underlying court case.

Rickmers Group reports that a representative of its company today has been allowed to board the seized container vessel Maersk Tigris, following an urgent request to Iranian authorities. The seized ship, managed by Rickmers Shipmanagement (Singapore), has a crew of 24 seafarers. The Rickmers representative has been able to establish that all seafarers are safe and on board the vessel. Given the current circumstances they are all in a good condition, the ship’s manager said. Maersk Tigris was seized by the Iranian Navy on Tuesday April 28 and has since been under control of the authorities. Iranian officials said the seizure is related to a cargo dispute with Maersk Line, the charterers of the vessel, which dates back to 2005.

At least five merchant vessels carrying food are stuck off Yemen as warships from a Saudi-led coalition search them for weapons bound for Iran-allied Houthi rebel forces, with delays adding to a humanitarian crisis. Yemen imports more than 90 percent of its food, including most of its wheat and all its rice, to feed a population of 25 million. Much of its needs had been serviced by foreign ships, although shipping lines have now reduced or stopped port calls. Ship tracking data showed at least five cargo ships were anchored off Yemen unable to enter Yemeni waters. "Disruption of navigation in Yemen's territorial waters will adversely affect food security," U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said.

DNV GL inform that Torsten Schramm, COO Division Germany, Middle East & Asia at DNV GL presented the certificate to Björn Sprotte, Global Head of Maritime Services, Rickmers Shipmanagement, at the at the DNV GL booth during the current SMM 2014. “By meeting the 5 Star Excellence requirements Rickmers Ship Management demonstrates its strong commitment to maximising the sustainability, energy efficiency and safety of its ships. Sustained investment in state of the art technology and advanced management systems make the company one of the most reliable players in the industry today and give it a competitive edge. We look forward to continuing on our work with Rickmers Shipmanagement in the future”, said Torsten Schramm.

National Shipping of America (NSA), which operates a fortnightly service between Houston, Port Everglades and Puerto Rico, has partnered with Rickmers-Linie (America) to provide more global connections to Puerto Rico shippers and greatly expand break bulk service opportunities to the island. Rickmers-Linie will also serve as general sales agent for National Shipping in North America. The NSA vessel service, called the Isla Verde Express, connects the U.S. Mainland with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, offering the fastest transit times and using the most modern, greenest vessel in the trade.