- As Norway Sets Up Second Test Area for Unmanned Ships
Navios Maritime Holdings and FSL Trust Management, a trustee-manager of Singapore-based First Ship Lease Trust, have failed to finalize their earlier sale and purchase agreement for a major share in the trust.
In April, Navios signed a term sheet to buy 154.4 million shares in FSL Trust, representing around 24.2% of the total number of issued units in FSL Trust, for a total of USD 20 million. As part of the agreement, FSL Trust was expected to secure a USD 20 million second priority mortgage convertible loan from Navios.
Definitive agreements for the proposed transaction were not agreed by September 30, 2017, and the term sheet has been automatically terminated, FSL Trust Management said in a statement.
“The termination of the term sheet is not expected to have any material financial impact on the group… (T)he trustee-manager will continue to be proactive in achieving refinancing to ensure the long-term stability of the trust amid the volatility and reduction in vessel values,” FSL Trust Management noted.
World Maritime News contacted Navios for a comment on the failed agreement with FSL Trust, however, the company is yet to reply.
Earlier this year, Navios Maritime Partners acquired the entire container fleet consisting of fourteen ships from another Singapore-based trust, Rickmers Maritime which completed the winding up process.
In the meantime, Norway has taken a further step in the field of autonomous vessels as it reached an agreement to establish a test area for such ships in the Sunnmøre region, according to the Norwegian Maritime Authority.
Under the deal signed between the country’s maritime authority, coastal administration and a consortium led by GCE Blue Maritime, Storfjord would become the second area in Norway approved for autonomous ship tests.
The a 110-kilometre long fjord was selected as fourteen of Norway’s shipyards and twenty shipping companies are situated in its vicinity, and because it is already being used as a test area for newly built and converted ships.
The first such area was approved in late September 2016, when Norway designated the Trondheim fjord for tests on unmanned ships. The previous initiative was undertaken by NTNU, Kongsberg Seatex, Kongsberg Maritime, MARINTEK and Maritime Robotics in cooperation with Trondheim Harbour and the Norwegian Maritime Authority.
The country aims to facilitate the testing of new concepts and full scale programs related to autonomous vessels in Storfjord in Sunnmøre and adjacent fjords in the northernmost part of Western Norway, the Møre og Romsdal county.
World Maritime News
