Press release -
Financing of Havila Voyages' ships
On Friday, April 8th, the EU extended sanctions against Russian companies. Havila Capella is funded by GTLK Asia, a Russian-owned leasing company in Hong Kong. GTLK Asia is among the sanctioned companies.
Havila Voyages assumes that the sanctions will prevent GTLK from carrying out the financing of the three remaining vessels being built at the Tersan shipyard in Turkey.
“We support sanctions against Russia in this dire situation the world is in and are now working to refinance Havila Capella to break all ties with sanctioned and Russian-owned companies”, says CEO Bent Martini at Havila Voyages.
“Havila Capella is the only one of our ships that is financed and leased from GTLK. The remaining ships are owned by the Tersan shipyard until we take delivery of them”.
All sailings with Havila Capella are planned to go according to a communicated route plan, and the ship is registered in the Norwegian Ordinary Ship Register, with the Norwegian flag, Norwegian crew and Norwegian operating company.
“Havila Voyages is the operator of Havila Capella. The ship is approved by the Norwegian authorities and satisfies all requirements in the Norwegian Maritime Act so that it can sail under the Norwegian flag. Even though we have paid rent to a Russian-owned company, the ship is Norwegian for all practical purposes”, Martini explains.
Martini says that the company has been working with alternative financing for some time.
“We have assessed what has now happened as a possible outcome and have for a period worked to find alternative financing for our coastal cruise ships”, he says.
In the short term, Havila Voyages has planned to take delivery of its second ship, Havila Castor, within a week. Scheduled start-up is May 10th from Bergen.
“We have to work with several options. The short-term solution is to take delivery of Havila Castor as soon as we can. The slightly more long-term solution is to find an alternative financing for the last two ships under construction, as well as how we will solve Havila Capella which is already in operation”, says Martini.
“The ships at the Tersan shipyard are owned by the shipyard until delivery. The plan was to finance the ships through leasing agreements with GTLK Europe and GTLK Asia, two reputable companies in ship financing, but today's situation makes it impossible for us to use GTLK as a financing institution for our ships”.
Martini says it is difficult to say when new financing is in place, but the company is well underway with the work.
“It is about significant sums of money to finance four coastal cruise ships, and these are complex exercises. It will take some time before everything is landed. We will comply with current sanctions, regulations and Norwegian legislation when refinancing our ships”, Martini concludes.
Havila Voyages will return with more information as soon as there is more clarification to the situation.
Topics
Categories
The Havila Voyages is a Norwegian shipping company that sails the classic coastal voyage between Bergen and Kirkenes with the Norwegian coast's most environmentally friendly ships.
The four new ships are loaded with the world's largest battery pack, and can sail for four hours without noise or emissions through vulnerable fjords. The batteries are charged with clean hydropower at shore, and when the batteries are low we switch to natural gas which cuts CO2 by around 25 %.
The hull is specially designed for maximum energy efficiency, and excess heat from cooling water and sea used for heating on board. On the menu are locally made dishes from local producers, and all unnecessary plastic is avoided. We are already exceeding the authorities' requirements for cutting emission, and we have set sail with zero emissions as the future target.
The Havila Voyages is part of the Havila Group that dates back to the 1950s. It all started when the founder, Per Sævik, bought his first fishing boat in his teens. From fishing and herring fishing, Havila is now a group operating in shipping technology, offshore, transport and tourism.
