The Honored group tries to save itself by sheltering the formulas provided for by the bankruptcy law. The weight of the accounts and the relationship with the funds. «Ferries restarted, ticket sales better than expected»
Mauro Zucchelli
01 July 2020
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LIVORNO. In the troubled crisis of the owner’s family group Onorato – with the Moby and Tirrenia brands (but also Toremar, which, however, is a thing in itself) – comes a twist that is not a twist: with a statement to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, the stock exchange institution of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg where the bond was issued at the center of all the troubles, the boards of directors of Moby spa and Cin spa (Tirrenia) announce that they have approved the presentation of a “request for a reservation pursuant to art. 161 sixth paragraph »of the bankruptcy law. In essence, a legal “umbrella” against possible attacks, but different from the actual arrangement with creditors.
The indication of the court
This is not a turning point because the recourse to the “instruments envisaged by the system for overcoming the crisis” was already indicated in October in the decree with which the second civil section of the Milan court rejected the sender’s bankruptcy petition filed by the 300 million euro bond holders expiring in 2023.
But it is a little bit because the scenario on which this complicated risk is affecting the survival of a group that is one of the main maritime operators in our area changes: stop for six months against any aggression by creditors. The move sprouts the weapons of the funds in a negotiation with no holds barred.
Moreover, in the creditors front, there are not only the funds of the Luxembourg bond. There is an exposure of 160 million towards the banks: it appears that Unicredit can withdraw from the responsibility of the leader and that, after a phase of confrontation for the afterlife for the sale of the ships to the Danes of Dfds, some dialogue has resumed. There is the debt of 180 million (115 of which past due) to the state for the privatization of Tirrenia: with the action of the commissioners who aimed first at the group accounts and then at the ships. There are the supplier credits (to be quantified): so essential to guarantee concrete operations.
The anti-attack umbrella
Therefore, not a very easy situation. But behind it there is “a patrimony of ships for over a billion”: it is the ace that Vincenzo Onorato he always claimed to have up his sleeve.
With the umbrella of this sort of pre-arrangement, the Onorato group seems willing to aim to have more time to reach an agreement to restructure the debt (182 bis). With a tactical choice: to avoid a common front between bond holders, banks, extraordinary administration ex Tirrenia (State) and suppliers, least of all in the hands of the funds that had filed for bankruptcy (and which evidently it was feared that they wanted to enhance the investment through the “stew” of the group’s assets to be sold a little at a time).
There must be this behind Achille Onorato’s statement to the “Sole 24 Ore” (“the agreement must however be balanced for everyone”). As far as we know, there is overall optimism regarding the possibility of finding a composition among the interests of the various parties. And to find it in the sign of business continuity instead of the end of the group with the cannibalization of the various pieces.
After the stop for the covid
It is clear that at the headquarters of the shipping company they do everything they can to credit this blow of optimism, which seems to be fighting with the situation of a sector grappling with the patatrac of the lockdown that for a long period has drastically cut the turnover . Of course, this will not be a normal summer from the point of view of the coming and going of tourists but sources from the Moby house insist on crediting a recovery above the forecasts regarding the sale of ferry tickets, at least on connections with the islands of the ‘Tuscan Archipelago and on routes to / from Sardinia. The official communication to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange heralds “the strengthening of all connections (in particular to and from Sardinia) reaching a total of 166 departures, the early reopening of the Corsica season, or the new partnership agreements to expand the offer towards the Sicilia. “
Meanwhile, yesterday to build consensus around this new scenario, the Onorato winked at their seafarers: in the face-to-face with the unions who asked for clarification, they played the salary payment card a few days earlier than usual. Result: the national secretariat of the autonomous union Federmar Cisal took the field to spend a positive opinion on this decision («continues to guarantee the work for the Italians of these companies, safeguarding them from the mere logic of the market that would see only the economic realization for speculators with the sale of the goods “).
Paluchowski’s afterlife
It remains to be seen translating this optimism into the figures of the accounts: in the past they were so problematic that in the decree of failure to go bankrupt the president Alida Paluchowski he had asked bitterly to change course with respect to the management, explicitly calling the directors’ responsibility. Including that of the board of statutory auditors who must solicit them properly.
Of course, six months more time but obviously it cannot be just a postponement of the trouble ball as far as possible: the court has already announced that it will not make discounts in the face of small tricks: it asks for a plan that is up to par the seriousness of the problems (but also the potential of the company).
For now, what seems to be looming is at least a reversal of the inertia of the match: if until a few months ago the shipowning family was under siege and the funds were aiming for a truce that in fact at least partially took away the command of the operations, now it is would say that the Honored return to the saddle. “To prevent other attacks and not to compromise the season, I resorted to a procedure that forces finance to talk to us,” says Vincenzo Onorato on Facebook. But the cue is now in the hands of the children: starting with Achille junior, 34 years old on the day of Santa Giulia.
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