Liquidation looking increasingly likely for SeaFrance
December 14, 2011
DFDS and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs have withdrawn their joint bid for the stricken cross-Channel ferry operator
Seafrance's Dover-Calais services were suspended in mid-November after the Commercial Court in Paris rejected the €5M joint offer from DFDS and LDA for some of the firm's assets (two of the four ferries) and continuing employment for half its workforce.
The court also rejected an offer from CFDT that would have turned Seafrance into a workers' cooperative, on the grounds that there was no financial backing for it.
The court set a deadline of last Monday (12th December) for the submission of new bids.
In a joint statement, DFDS and LDA state that they decided not to resubmit a bid because "it has not been possible to establish a dialogue with the union representing the majority of SeaFrance's employees" [the CFDT].
However, they add that the underlying industrial logic of their takeover proposal remains and they "will continue to monitor the situation with SeaFrance closely."
SeaFrance was put into receivership last year after a proposed MBO backed by the company's owner SNCF to the tune of E160M was blocked by Brussels on the grounds that the restructuring plan was based on state aid.
The French government has appealed the EU decision and, meanwhile, Transport Minister Thierry Mariani has expressed sympathy with the CFDT's buy-out plan, which would retain all four ships and all jobs. The Nord-Pas de Calais region has promised to back the CFDT's bid with a E10M cash injection.
But as things stand, it looks as though the administrators of Seafrance will now liquidate the company for good, with the loss of around 880 permanent posts and 200 summer season jobs.
Courtesy of World Cargo News
