Malaysian Merchant Marine retrenches all staff

Kuala Lumpur: Struggling shipowner Malaysian Merchant Marine (MMM) has retrenched  its entire staff. MMM asked  all its employees to take up redundancy on March 4 after the collapse of a deal to acquire a 19,980 dwt double-hulled chemical tanker for $38m from Singapore's Uniships. The acquisition of the vessel for "Project Acid", expected to generate revenues of RM700m ($211m), was described as a vital part of MMM's turnaround strategy. The company said in a brief statement to Bursa Malaysia that staff had accepted the voluntary separation scheme and "all of the staff of the company are considered retrenched". In an effort to cut costs the company sold off subsidiary C M Ram Holdings and four other subsidiaries in Singapore to Gurudaib Singh for S$1.00 ($0.71). Last week the company received a demand from Prima Uno Bhd and Malaysian Trustees Bhd for the repayment of a RM40.3m loan facility within 14 days. [17/03/10]