Lithuanian Shipping Company Files for Bankruptcy Again

The General Director of PC Lithuanian Shipping Company Sigitas Dobilinskas applied to the District court of Klaipeda to initiate bankruptcy proceedings in respect of PC Lithuanian Shipping Company, the company informed on Friday, November 27th.

This is the second time in less than six months that the company has filed for bankruptcy. Namely, on July 23rd the the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania applied to the Klaipėda court to initiate the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.

Just a week after the announcement, the Ministry decided to withdraw the application following an agreement with the AB SEB bank on a credit of EUR 3 million, thus dodging bankruptcy.

The state-owned company which employs 237 workers has been piling up losses since 2008, and the accumulated loss currently stands at EUR 20 million. The company’s inability to pay its debts led to several arrests of its vessels by different claimants.

Latvian information agency (LETA) reports that the shipping company’s majority shareholder and SEB Bankas, its biggest creditor, have agreed to provide 1.2 million euros to ensure that the ships and their crews can safely return to European ports.

As informed, SEB wants to save the ships from being auctioned off and spare the crews from being left to their own devices in different ports.

Earlier today, Nasdaq Vilnius informed that it has decided to resume trading in PC Lithuanian Shipping Company shares (LJL1L, ISIN code: LT0000125999).

The trading was suspended on the request of the issuer due to announcement of material information related to company’s business continuity.

Orders in PC Lithuanian Shipping Company orderbook will be flushed, Nasdaq Baltic informed.