Eastwind 13 sold

Nordea grabbed parts of New York's troubled Eastwind group, including a fleet of 13 ships, and sold them to Sammy Ofer's Samama, Nordea said Tuesday.

Nordea Bank Finland's New York branch said it "exercised a pledge" over shares in four Eastwind subsidiaries and sold them to Monaco-based Samama's Draften Shipping.

Sammy Ofer

Eastwind, an owner of reefers, bulkers, chemical tankers and containerships, has been the subject of lawsuits, vessel arrests and other setbacks as it has reportedly redelivered vessels under charter. Representatives of Eastwind could not be immediately reached Tuesday.

Among the subsidiaries taken over by Ofer, an Israeli shipowner, is Eastwind's Eurus Container Carriers and 10 containerships it controls.

The Eurus ships are the 1,893-teu Safmarine Asia (built 1985), 1,893-teu Safmarine Europe (built 1985), 1,555-teu Eurus Singapore (built 1989), 1,555-teu Eurus Stockholm (built 1990), 833-teu Eurus Lima (built 1990), 915-teu Eurus Lisbon (built 1991), 915-teu Eurus London (built 1992), 1,911-teu Eurus Oslo (built 1989), 1,911-teu Eurus Ottawa (built 1989) and 564-teu Eurus Paris (built 1983).

Also in the deal was Eastwind's 30,000-dwt bulkers Eastwind Rhine (built 1990) and Eastwind Rhone (ex-EW Harting, built 1991).

Samama also takes over a lone reefer, the 279,000-cbf EW Kenya (built 1985).

Nordea says that Samama has turned to Ofer's London-based Zodiac Maritime Agencies to "consult and advise on vessel management issues."

Clarkson Research lists Eastwind Maritime as owning 48 vessels and newbuildings, totalling some 1.07 million dwt. But the list does not include many of the Eurus ships.

TradeWinds reported on 12 June that the company had redelivered several chartered reefers and suffered a bulker arrest in Texas.

The company also lost the commercial management of 12 freezer ships owned by Russian interests.

The 13 Eastwind ships will add to Ofer's empire of 235 vessels totalling nearly 23.1 million dwt, according to Clarkson.

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