News
10 Jan 2012
DLA Piper advises Chinese shipyard group CSC on securing assets during the course of the Beluga insolvency
Press Release
The international law firm DLA Piper has been advising and representing the Quinshan Shipyard of China Changjiang National Shipping Group Corporation (CSC) – one of the largest shipyard groups in China – during the insolvency proceedings of the Beluga Shipping Group of Bremen-based entrepreneur Niels Stolberg.
After insolvency proceedings meant that assurances could no longer be secured from a company of the Beluga Group for outstanding residual purchase prices amounting to some €28m on E Series ships that had already been supplied, the worldwide arrest of ships (India, Sri Lanka, Malta, France) succeeded in bringing the new operators and the financing institution HSH Nordbank AG to the negotiating table. Agreement has now been reached on the claims being made by CSC.
In addition to coordination of the international office by DLA Piper, the counselling process also involved the clarification of complex problems in civil law and civil proceedings as well as issues of German and European insolvency law together with shipping and company law.
Carsten Grau, a specialist in maritime commercial law for DLA Piper in Hamburg, said: “This case showed in particular how the international and interdisciplinary working approach of DLA Piper has paid off by producing an efficient and practically oriented solution in the client’s interest. During the course of the global economic crisis, worldwide asset recovery actions are becoming necessary with increasing frequency.”
The team under the management of partner Carsten Grau (Litigation & Regulatory, Hamburg) included partners Dr Benjamin Parameswaran and Dr Nils Krause (both Corporate, Hamburg) as well as senior associate Anne von Mering (Litigation & Regulatory, Hamburg). Those involved from the Hong Kong office of DLA Piper were partner Nicholas Mallard and associates Jacky Darsono and Alex Wong (all Litigation & Regulatory, Hong Kong). In addition to this, DLA Piper also collaborated with H.J. Yang from Barry Law Firm in Shanghai.
In the various ports, DLA Piper employed the regional expertise of the law firms Crawford & Bailey (Prashant Asher and Sneha Madinur, Mumbai), D.L. & F. de Saram (Jivan Goonetilleke, Colombo), Ganado & Associates (Dr Louis Pullicino, La Valetta) and Renard & Associes (Jean Leopold Renard, Marseille).
HSH Nordbank AG was represented by its legal department.
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