Beluga Shipping

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Beluga Shipping GmbH iI

logo
legal form GmbH iI
founding 1995
resolution 2011
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Bremen , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Roger Iliffe
sales 415 million euros (2009)
Branch Shipping company
Website www.beluga-group.com

Former headquarters of the Beluga Group
The Beluga Singapore loads the double-ended ferry Kwale with its own heavy lift gear at the Dradenau terminal in Hamburg-Waltershof

Beluga Shipping GmbH iI was a German project and heavy cargo - shipping company based in Bremen .

In March 2011, Beluga became aware of a financial crisis, in the course of which the US investment company Oaktree Capital Management took over the management of the group and replaced the company's founder and previous managing director, Niels Stolberg . On March 16, 2011, a sub-division of the shipping group, Beluga Chartering GmbH , applied for insolvency proceedings to be initiated . Beluga Shipping and other subsidiaries are now in bankruptcy.

Business areas

The core competence of the Beluga Group was project and heavy lift shipping.

At the same time, the company became increasingly involved in the offshore wind turbine market. In connection with the insolvency, Hochtief intended to take over the shares of Beluga Offshore GmbH in the joint venture Beluga-Hochtief-Offshore .

The Beluga Group was organizationally divided into three core areas:

  • The Beluga Shipping GmbH formed the roof of entrepreneurial activities and focuses on the core business of shipping.
  • The Beluga Offshore GmbH was instrumental in the organization and implementation of the business unit offshore wind.
  • The Beluga Maritime Education GmbH was responsible for maritime training and offshore training.

Corporate development

The Beluga Shipping GmbH was established in December 1995 as "cargo operator" of Erhard Koschorreck and Niels Stolberg founded in Bremen. In 1998 the first own ship, the multi-purpose freighter Beluga Performer , was put into service, and in 1999 the shipping company's first own new building, Werder Bremen , was added. In the years that followed, the company grew rapidly. The crane capacities of the ships were up to 1400 tons in combined tandem operation ( P series ).

The international presence of Beluga Shipping increased from 2002, initially through the opening of foreign branches in Brazil and Singapore . The takeover of the Dutch company GenChart BV and the opening of a branch in Beijing followed in 2003 . In 2004 additional offices were opened in Houston and Shanghai . There have now been 15 branches worldwide. However, the company did not offer regular services between the branches, but operated in tramp shipping . On the Bremen Teerhof - between the insurance buildings and the university guest house - the Beluga Group had its new administration building built, which they moved into in June 2009. In September 2010, a total of 69 multi-purpose heavy lift carriers were in service for the Beluga Group.

As a result of the growth in the fleet, Beluga was able to more than double its turnover compared to 2006 from 175 to 418 million euros in 2008 (2007: 268 million euros). In the same period, the operating profit rose from 17.4 to 68 million euros (2007: 30 million euros). In the "crisis year 2009", sales were kept almost stable at EUR 415 million due to the growing tonnage , with profits falling to EUR 20 million.

In summer 2009, the US investment company Oaktree Capital Management took over a third of the shares in the Beluga Group for more than EUR 100 million. This was to finance the further expansion of the fleet and thus the expansion of the company. Since February 28, 2011, it became known that the financial investor Oaktree, who now held a 49.5% stake, wanted to take over Beluga. The Federal Cartel Office confirmed a corresponding registration.

On March 3, 2011, Niels Stolberg had to resign as managing director. The restructuring officer at Oaktree, Roger Iliffe , took over the management. The public prosecutor's office initiated an investigation against the former managing partner Stolberg and other senior employees on suspicion of serious fraud.

On March 16, 2011, part of the Beluga Group, Beluga Chartering GmbH , which is responsible for the charter business , applied to the Bremen District Court to open insolvency proceedings. In the meantime, bankruptcy has been filed for Beluga Shipping and other subsidiaries such as the Sea Academy .

The US financial investor Oaktree, which had a stake in Beluga, founded the new heavy lift shipping company Hansa Heavy Lift , which is now based in Hamburg , together with former employees of Beluga and some ships from the Beluga fleet .

Projects

The company was one of the first shipping companies involved in the commercial application of a paraglider-like towing kite by the Hamburg company SkySails . On December 15, 2007, the Beluga SkySails was christened in Hamburg. In addition to the conventional combustion engine , the ship was equipped with a towing kite, which has reduced fuel consumption on windy routes by an average of around 5.5 percent.

In summer 2009, freighters of the Beluga Group were the first ships of a western shipping company to sail through the Northeast Passage along the Siberian coast. In the previous year, the necessary permits had not been received in time to use the narrow time window for transit on the northern sea route . As a result of climate change , the ice is now receding in summer and, depending on the weather, opens a passage for six to eight weeks that shortens the distance from Europe to Asia or the other way around by a third. The company planned to send up to six freighters on this route. Compared to the classic route through the Suez Canal, this would have saved up to 3.5 million euros, according to the company.

Pirate attacks

On August 21, 2008, the freighter BBC Trinidad was hijacked by Somali pirates and released after 21 days for a ransom.

On October 24, 2010, pirates attempted to kidnap the Beluga Fortune about 1200 nautical miles east of the Kenyan city of Mombasa . The attempt failed, however, because the crew fled to a shelter, from there stopped the ship's engines and called for help. Since the pirates failed to get the ship going and to move it to a safe place for them, they left the ship again so that the Beluga Fortune could continue her voyage with the unharmed crew.

On January 22, 2011, another ship belonging to the shipping company, the Beluga Nomination , was attacked and captured by Somali pirates. Several sailors and pirates were killed in an attempt to rescue the ship. The ship was released again in mid-April 2011.

Illegal arms transports to crisis areas

In July 2009, the Beluga Eternity , a Beluga E-series ship , transported missiles and tanks from the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv- Okyabrsk to Myanmar . At the time of the arms transport in 2009 there was an EU embargo against Myanmar due to massive human rights violations.

The Beluga Endurance brought a load of tanks and ammunition from Oktjabrsk to Mombasa , which were intended for onward transport to the crisis area of South Sudan . According to Niels Stolberg, the ships did not go under the responsibility of the shipping company Beluga Shipping , but were chartered out .

The public prosecutor's office in Bremen has sufficient suspicion that an employee of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has made himself a criminal offense for aiding and abetting the Foreign Trade Act. The BND employee with the code name "Hollmann" is said to have advised the shipping company Beluga on how the arms transports could be handled without having to fear legal consequences, so the allegation. But the investigations stall, also because the public prosecutor's office does not know the real name of the BND employee.

Bankruptcy and its Consequences

  • The company headquarters, built from 2007 to 2009, was sold in 2012 to BLB Immobilien, a subsidiary of Bremer Landesbank , and rented to the Aurich wind turbine manufacturer Enercon .
  • The ships have been sold and some of them have been transferred to Hansa Heavy Lift by the investor . The Beluga College no longer exists. The group's apprentices have been placed with other shipping companies.
  • The Beluga School For Life has been renamed the Hanseatic School for Life .
  • The publicly funded, then unfinished Beluga Offshore Training Academy in Elsfleth is currently (2012) operated by the Wesermarsch district; a final solution is still being sought.
  • In Oldenburg, the VfL Oldenburg sports boarding school initiated by Stolberg was not completed. The city suffered financial damage.
  • Several companies belonging to the group had to close on Spiekeroog .

Web links

Commons : Beluga Group  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Klaus Wolschner: The rapid fall of a climber . In: Waterkant , issue 1/2011, p. 11/12, volume 26, Förderkreis Waterkant eV, Emsdetten 2011, ISSN  1611-1583
  • Burkhard Ilschner, Christoph Spehr: What lessons from the “Beluga” crash are necessary? . In: Waterkant , Issue 1 · 16 from March 2016, pp. 7-10, Förderkreis Waterkant eV, ISSN  1611-1583

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bremer Reederei in the crisis. Filing for bankruptcy for Beluga charter business. (No longer available online.) Radio Bremen , archived from the original on March 19, 2011 ; Retrieved March 16, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radiobremen.de
  2. ↑ a b Deutsche Seeschifffahrt, Issue 4/2011, p. 10, Verband Deutscher Reeder eV (Ed.), Hamburg 2011, ISSN  0948-9002
  3. ↑ Hochtief wants to take over the offshore share . In: Hansa , Heft 7/2011, p. 5, Schiffahrts-Verlag Hansa, Hamburg 2011
  4. ↑ a b Krischan Förster: Beluga goes on an ice ride. The second attempt is to conquer the Nordostpassage / balance sheet 2008: sales grow again by a good 50 percent . Weser-Kurier , February 18, 2009, p. 17
  5. ↑ Official Beluga Group Site ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 28, 2010  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.beluga-group.com
  6. ↑ Company profile 2010. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Beluga Shipping, archived from the original on January 24, 2011 ; Retrieved May 27, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.beluga-group.com
  7. ↑ a b The sinking of the Beluga shipping company. Financial Times Deutschland, March 10, 2011, archived from the original on March 13, 2011 ; Retrieved March 10, 2011 .
  8. ↑ US investor plans to take over Beluga ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Nordwest-Zeitung , accessed March 3, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nwzonline.de
  9. ^ Schiff & Hafen , Issue 4/2011, p. 8, Seehafen-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISSN  0938-1643
  10. ↑ Burkhard Ilschner, Christoph Spehr: What lessons from the “Beluga” crash are necessary? Former shipowner and hyped model entrepreneur Niels Stolberg in court . In: Waterkant , Issue 1 · 16 from March 2016, pp. 7-10, Förderkreis Waterkant eV, ISSN  1611-1583
  11. ↑ project WINTECC final report (3.1) (PDF file, 607 kB) accessed 17 January 2012
  12. ↑ SkySails ( Memento from August 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) performance calculation (days of operation at sea). Retrieved March 26, 2011
  13. ↑ Beluga Group, N-series data of the main drive ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - speed and fuel consumption. Retrieved March 26, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.beluga-group.com
  14. ↑ Captain of the hijacked BBC Trinidad . Retrieved February 4, 2012 .
  15. ↑ Beluga nomination captured in the Indian Ocean. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 28, 2011 ; accessed on January 27, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eunavfor.eu
  16. ↑ a b BND employees in the sights of the Bremen public prosecutor's office . MONITOR press release
  17. ↑ Rainer Kahrs: The Lord of the Ships - On the Crash of a Global Player (PDF; 1.2 MB) ARD / nordwest radio. Retrieved on November 23, 2013 (broadcast manuscript, PDF document)
  18. ^ Tanks for Crisis States , taz, October 29, 2012, accessed on November 24, 2013
  19. ↑ BLB-Immobilien buys Beluga building . Weser-Jurier on May 22, 2012
  20. ↑ Enercon moves into the Beluga building . NWZ online
  21. ↑ What remained of Beluga ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Radio Bremen, broadcast on February 29, 2012  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radiobremen.de
  22. ↑ Offshore youngsters will train in Elsfleth in the future . Weser-Kurier from September 1, 2011
  23. ↑ Hall ready for handball and school sports  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . NWZ online from June 24, 2010@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nwzonline.de  
  24. ↑ Today new appointment at the district court . Weser-Kurier dated August 14, 2011