FSL Trust may lose about $2.39m
A Japanese court has ruled in favour of shipping trust FSL Trust in its legal proceedings against Daxin Petroleum which arrested one of its vessels over unpaid bunker bills last year. A Chinese court, however, ruled in favour of Daxin in its bunker claims against Rovina Shipping Company which had chartered another of FSL Trust’s vessel.
The Singapore-listed trust expects to take back a $1.6m security deposit from the Japanese court if there is no appeal by Daxin. But FSL Trust may lose about $2.39m out of $2.8m it had used to lodge the legal challenge through the Chinese court.
The trust is also locked in a third ongoing case in a Singapore court against Daxin and its affiliates, among which Rovina Shipping is included, in connection with the arrests of the two vessels. FSL Trust said it has made a financial provision for $2.5m in the company’s second-quarter accounts.
The amount of $2.5m represents approximately 5% of FSL Trust’s cash and cash equivalents of $53.2m as at 31 March 2011 and is not material in comparison to FSL Trust’s total equity of $339.4m as at 31 March 2011, it said.
Source: Seatrade Asia