Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 1999)

Hvide Marine Files Reorganization Plan Hvide Marine, Inc. has filed a proposed Plan of Reor-ganization that, if confirmed, would deleverage its bal-ance sheet, restore liquidity and enhance the company's competitive position in the marketplace. The plan is a result from discussions with the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors appointed in Hvide's Chapter 11 case, including representatives of the holders of about 63 percent of the company's $300 million of 8 3/8 per-cent senior notes would exchange their Senior Notes for 9,800,000 shares of common stock of the reorga-nized Hvide Marine, representing 98 percent of the new common equity. Holders of the Trust Convertible Preferred Securities would receive 200,000 shares of common stock of the reorganized Hvide Marine, repre-senting two percent of the new common equity, togeth-er with warrants to purchase an additional 125,000 shares of the common stock of the reorganized Hvide Marine. The warrants would be exercisable at $38.49 per share and would have a term of four years. Crowley Announces Restructuring Crowley Maritime Corp. is planning a significant strategic restructuring that will result in a more decen-tralized ocean cargo transportation company once the sale of its South America liner services to Hamburg Sud is complete. Having completed this assignment, P. Elliott Burnside will leave the position of president of Crowley American Transport to establish his own industry consulting service, which Crowley will uti-lize. The company will not replace Burnside and will instead restructure its liner services into two major business units. Puerto Rico and Caribbean Liner ser-vices will be led by John Douglass, vice president and general manager, Puerto Rico and Caribbean Services, while Central America and Mexico liner services will be led by Rinus Schepen, vice president and general manager, Central America & Mexico Services. Crow-ley's South America liner services will continue to be run by Frank Larkin, vice president and general man-ager, South America Services, until the sale of these services is finalized. S&P Lowers Pegasus Rating Standard & Poor's lowered its corporate credit rating on Pegasus Shipping. The rating actions reflect Pega-sus' rapidly diminishing financial flexibility owing to weak market conditions. Pegasus owns one of the world's largest independent Panamax tanker fleets. The Panamax tanker sector is currently experiencing weak market conditions, and the market is expected to remain weak in the short term. Arne Blystad S/A, Pegasus' largest customer, which at the end of last year accounted for about 20 percent of the company's rev-enues, has not been able to pay the time charter rates contracted for the chartered vessels. A settlement was reached in mid-1999 whereby the charter contracts were terminated, and a large portion of the remaining receivable was forgiven in return for an one-time pay-ment. MHI Establishes Australian Subsidiary Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has established a wholly owned subsidiary, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Australia Pty. Ltd., which will commence operations on October 1. Headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, the new subsidiary will have its Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Department in Sydney. Shingo Ueda, who currently serves as chief representative of MHI's Australia Representative Office was appointed as man-aging director of the company, while Hirokazu Kanamori will become general manager of MHI's Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Department. Marine Design Center To Acquire Barge The Marine Design Center (MDC) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) intends to attain an inland river style specialty barge to serve on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District (CELRL) in support of its mission. Measuring 70 ft. (21.3 m) with a 35 ft. (10.6 m) beam, the vessel will be used to wash mud and debris from lock walls, miter gates and floating approach walls at the Olmstead Lock & Dam. The vessel will be designed, built and classed to American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) rules for Steel Vessels on Rivers and Intracoastal Waterways. Wattyl Acquires Wasser Wattyl Limited of Sydney, Australia acquired Wasser High-Tech Coatings on July 1, 1999. In its most recent fiscal year, Wattyl achieved sales of $347 million and pre-tax profit of $23.2 million. Wattyl specializes in most aspects of the paint and coating industry includ-ing architectural and decorative coatings, industrial maintenance, OEM, and marine and automotive refin-ishing. This acquisition, which strengthens Wasser's ability to both sell and service their growing worldwide business in the offshore markets, also solidifies the company's leadership position in the U.S. Bridge and hydro markets. Maritime Reporter/Engineering News ^ORTELBOER ANCHORS CHAINS G.J. Wortelboer Jr. B.V. P.O. Box 5003, 3008 AA Rotterdam The Netherlands Telephone: +31 10 429 2222 Telefax: +31 10 429 6459 E-mail: [email protected] Circle 251 on Reader Service Card Ocean Sprint RHIBS Full Sen/ice Shipyard ? SOLAS ? Commercial ? Leisure ? Military ? Custom Phone 1-800-783-7442 or 504-364-1572 Fax 504-362-5949 http://www.oceantech.com ? Dry-Docks ? New Construction ? Topside Repairs ? Conversions ? Ceram-Kote Propulsion ? Jet ? I/O ? Outboard Circle 305 on Reader Service Card f? G. R. Bowler, Incorporated Ij Marine & Industrial Control; ABS type approved steam and diesel engine room controls and monitoring systems The products we use in our systems are of the highest possible quality and are designed for your needs. 800-524-9570 www.grbowler.com LNG Engine Room Automation Circle 357 on Reader Service Card 24