Romania's bankrupt Mangalia yard heads back to auction
Second sale attempt keeps the 184m-euro price after Rheinmetall and MSC held off
The administrator of Romania's insolvent Mangalia shipyard will try again to sell its assets on 29 July, keeping the same 184m-euro going-concern price at the request of creditors after the first attempt drew no bids.
Prospective buyers Rheinmetall and MSC both abstained when the assets were offered on 27 June. By the time of the second auction the yard will have no staff, with the last 1,011 contracts ending on 15 July. The assets are being offered as a single package rather than in parts, with bidders required to lodge a 10% guarantee of about 18.4m euros. Total creditor claims run to around 2bn lei, or roughly 380m euros, with the Dutch group Damen, a minority shareholder and former manager, holding the majority.
The 184m-euro going-concern figure sits about 100m euros above the yard's liquidation value, a price the Romanian state has signalled it would accept without an auction as part of a wider arrangement with Rheinmetall. The German defence group won a contract worth 920m euros before tax to build two offshore patrol vessels and two diver-support ships, and says it would need only a small share of Mangalia's capacity, having built similar vessels in Bulgaria.
