Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Default causes alarm for the largest shipping company in the Philippines

The financial situation at the largest shipping company in the Philippines has been brought into focus after a sister firm defaulted on a $4m debt to banks last week.

Chelsea Logistics & Infrastructure Holdings is the shipping part of the sprawling Udenna Group, run by local tycoon oil trader Dennis Uy. Shipping brands controlled by Chelsea Logistics include OSV and tanker specialist Chelsea Shipping Corp, Trans-Asia Shipping Lines, Starlite Ferries, TASLI Services, SuperCat Fast Ferry Corporation, and Worklink Services.

A unit of Uy’s holding company was served with a default notice last week over a real estate development he is carrying out at Clark airport. The default has sparked concern about the scale of the debts at the group. Latest data from the end of 2020 show the group, which is also involved in casinos and telecommunications, had debts of $4.6bn, a figure that doubled in the space of three years.

The group stressed yesterday that it has resolved last week’s default issue.

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