Karatzas Advisors Completes Sale of Two 270-Foot Tuna Purse Seiners

Karatzas Marine Advisors & Co., a New York-based shipping finance and ship-brokerage firm, is pleased to announce the successful completion by Mr. Basil M Karatzas, CEO of the firm, of the Liquidation Trustee mandate - as this was originally ordered by the High Court of the Republic of the Marshall Islands for the two pelagic super purse seiner tuna fishing vessels F/V ‘Fong Seong 668' and F/V ‘Fong Seong 696’. 

The sistership super-seiner Vessels - of 2386 GRT, app. 82 meter (268 ft) LOA and flying the Vanuatu flag - had been under arrest in the Majuro Lagoon, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, since November 2017; Mr Karatzas was appointed as Liquidation Trustee in April 2018 by order of the High Court of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. After undertaking turn-key solutions and provision of routine maintenance and upkeep, the Vessels were sold en bloc via auction sale to Messrs Sajo Industries Co. Ltd in Seoul, South Korea in September 2018. 

Mr Karatzas, upon the completion of this stage of the Liquidation Trustee assignment, stated: “It has been a unique and most memorable experience working on this complicated transaction of super-sized purse seiner Vessels in a niche market and at an exotic location; we are delighted for our appointment as Liquidation Trustee by Order of the High Court of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and having the pleasure of physically visiting and spending time in Majuro, RMI’s capital, for this assignment; we are, however, mostly pleased with executing impeccably on the mandate and transaction, by providing turn-key solutions via engaging a highly qualified team of professionals, avoiding any environmental damage in a critically sensitive location in a middle an atoll complex in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and by securing the timely sale of the assets in a manner that maximized value for all parties involved, primarily the creditors."

Mr Y. S. Kim, legal counsel for the Buyers, Messrs Sajo Industries Co. Ltd, stated upon the successful acquisition of the Vessels: “Sajo Industries (Sajo Vanuatu) is pleased to acquire these two good Vessels and want to deploy them as soon as possible. These Vessels could fit into the Company's strategy by expanding the catch and employing more crew members while complying with any rules for fisheries management.”

The judicial sale of the Vessels took place online via www.karatzas.auction.