The ferry Santa Cruz (ex Moby Corse), which has been inactive and moored in the port of Genoa for about a year, will be sold at auction.
The decision was made by the Court of Genoa, to which the creditors, including notably the crew, Ente Bacini, and probably also other companies including fuel sellers, have appealed.
According to what was learned by SHIPPING ITALY, judge Cristina Tabacchi has already assigned to engineer Federico Sommella the task of proceeding with the estimation of the ferry’s value, while maritime broker Andrea Fertonani (Fertonani Shipbrokers) will be tasked with finding the new buyer.
Depending on the timeline dictated by the court procedure, the sale could be completed within about 60 days if, on the first attempt, buyers come forward interested in taking over the ship at the minimum price set as the auction base.
The same ship Santa Cruz, owned by the company Ferry Med Srl linked to Stergulc Rihard, had already been released from a conservatory seizure (initiated by some creditors) last January after the owning company paid off the debt accumulated with some creditors (the seafarers on board, Zincaf and Ente Bacini). The ferry was supposed to enter service on charter on maritime routes to and from Algeria on behalf of the company L’Aures.
The ferry was built in 1978 by the Danish shipyard Aalborg Værft A/S of Aalborg, has a gross tonnage of 19,593 tonnes, can transport 1,200 passengers, and 450 cars thanks to a garage with 810 linear meters of capacity.
Thanks to financing provided by an Italian credit institution, the ferry was sold by Moby to Ferry Med Srl, a company established in January 2023 with a share capital of 1 million euros and owned by Stergulc Rihard (sole director), an Italian citizen but domiciled in Slovenia.
As previously revealed, the purchase of the ex-Moby Corse ferry and the investment completed by Ferry Med Srl was supposed to be part of the broader Italian political program renamed the “Mattei Plan for Africa” and the long-term project aimed at purchasing other ro-pax ships to create a new network of lines for the transport of people and wheeled cargo between Italy, France, and Spain to Algeria. A market, the one with Algeria, which in the meantime has seen increased commitment especially from the public shipping company Algerie Ferries and from GNV, which added its own connection from southern France. Besides them, the newcomer Nouris Elbahr Ferries had also started a line with the ferry Cracovia between the port of Marseille and Algiers.
N.C.
