Scandlines, the Danish-German ferry company controlled by the London based private equity group 3i, has asked quotes from a number of European yards for two large short haul ferries as STX Finland, with whom it has an initial contract from July, had failed to arrange working capital to build the planned ships, Finnish media reports say.
Anette Ustrup Svendsen, head of corporate communications at Scandlines, told the Turun Sanomat daily that the company has made an offer to acquire two ferries built at a shipyard in Stralsund in Germany that were due to enter service with Scandlines as Copenhagen and Berlin, but which it refused to accept due to their excessive weight and consequently lower than contracted deadweight tonnage. The shipyard went bankrupt as a result and the incomplete vessels and its other assets are in the hands of administrators.
The two ferries would need to be substantially modified before Scandlines could accept them, she told the Finnish daily, adding that the company has asked a few other European yards for quotes for two ferry newbuildings and that it hopes to receive the quotes as soon as possible.
STX Finland is not entirely out of the picture: "From the technical point of view, STX (FInland) would be the best option for us. However, we need to look at other optins too, because we are half a year behind schedule," she concluded.
The situation in Finland took an acute turn for the worse in late November, when STX Finland said that talks with Scandlines to finalise the order agreed in principle in July had been terminated as financial details could not be put in place on time.
Media reports in Finland have suggested that tumbling block was a weak balance sheet of STX Finland, which had prevented Finnvera, the Finnish state guarantee institution, from issuing guarantees of construction time loans to STX Finland.
