Rickmers Group’s survival in doubt after bondholders vote fails to hit quorum

Bondholders voted between 8-10 May in relation to the EUR275m ($298.7m) 8.875% bonds 2013/2018 and the results did not achieve the necessary quorum of at least half of the outstanding bond capital.

In total, bondholders holding bonds representing EUR47.763m participated in the voting, corresponding to 17.37% of the outstanding bond capital, meaning that the voting was not quorate even though the majority of the participating bond capital voted in favour of the proposed restructuring plan.

“Against this background, Rickmers Holding AG will for the last time invite all bondholders to vote in favor of the restructuring plan in the so called second meeting of the bondholders in form of a physical meeting on 1 June 2017,” Rickmers stated.

Rickmers said however the second bondholders’ meeting will be effective only if the present bondholders represent at least 25% of the outstanding bond capital, in order to push through the restructuring.

“If this quorum is not achieved or the bondholders do not approve the proposed restructuring plan by a qualified majority (75% of voting rights present) the reorganisation would likely fail and the positive continuation forecast of Rickmers Holding AG would likely no longer apply,” Rickmers said.

Under the proposed restructuring, sole shareholder Bertram Rickmers is prepared to reduce his stake from 100% to 24.9% to allow key stakeholders to majority control the company.