VT Halter Marine’s parent, VT Systems, has offered $21 million cash for Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co.’s Mobile shipyard, making it the “stalking horse” in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction process.

VT Systems, which is making the bid through an entity identified in
court documents as Vision Technologies Marine, Inc., is the U.S.
subsidiary of Singapore’s ST Engineering.

To beat out VT Halter Marine for the Mobile shipyard, any other bidder
would have to offer more than $1.5 million more and be able to close
within three days of the court ordering a sale. The deadline for bids
is January 11, 2010.

Back in October, there were reports that an auction would be held by
December 15, with Dallas private-equity firm SunTx Capital Partners as
the initial bidder stalking horse. Reportedly, had SunTX Capital won
that auction, it would have retained the yard’s current management.
Bender’s unsecured creditors said in court filings that the sale was
being pursued to quickly and would not net the highest value possible
for the assets.

Now an auction is scheduled on Jan. 14, according to court
documents–and if VT Systems emerges as the winner it seems highly
unlikely that ultimate owner, ST Engineering in Singapore, would retain
the current Bender management.

If a higher bid is approved by the bankruptcy court, Bender must pay
$850,000 to VT Halter, plus up to $400,000 in expenses, according to
court documents.

According to an information packet sent to potential buyers, the Mobile
shipyard property includes six repair/construction yards, three steel
floating dry docks, and other equipment on 26 acres. It has 3,300 feet
of deepwater frontage.

Source: Marinelog

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