Rickmers Maritime Exits Intercreditor Deed

Singapore-based Rickmers Trust Management Pte. Ltd. (RTM), the trustee-manager of mainboard-listed Rickmers Maritime, has fulfilled the conditions required to exit the intercreditor deed the company signed with three bank syndicates in June 2010.

Following this move, the company regained the right to cash inflows from equity fund raising and prepayment step-up through excess cash generation. The exit also allows RTM to negotiate with each syndicate individually on a bilateral basis to meet its obligations and term out its loan maturity profile, without the need for unanimous agreement from all syndicates.

“It is a significant development for Rickmers Maritime to finally achieve Trust Exit from the Intercreditor Deed after five years. This move complements our efforts to preserve cash to weather further market volatility, and improves our financial flexibility to be well-placed for growth when the shipping market improves,” Soeren Andersen, the Chief Executive Officer of RTM, commented.

Rickmers Trust Management and the lenders entered into the intercreditor deed to restructure the RTM’s obligations after it failed to meet the value-to-loan (VTL) covenant requirement due to the significant drop in vessel values amid the shipping downturn then.

As a result of the continued debt repayment, RTM is now VTL compliant, meaning that it is no longer required to negotiate for an extension of the VTL covenant waiver, due to expire on December 31, 2015.