The court order came after the Algerian charterer paid the first installments of the charter to the new shipping company Ferry Med
With the assistance of a couple of tugboats, the Santa Cruz ferry, the former Moby Corse sold a few weeks ago by the Onorato family company to the Ferry Med Srl company owned by Stergulc Rihard, was transferred from the berth in the former super basin area in the port of Genoa to a berth adjacent to the Zincaf shipyard.
By order of the Genoa court
According to what SHIPPING ITALY has learned, the ship was released from seizure by order of the Genoa court after the shipping company was able to settle the outstanding debt having received the first money sent by the Algerian charterer of the ferry.
The creditors
The creditors include the seamen on board (some of whom have already disembarked), Zincaf itself and Ente Bacini. The seizure seems to have been requested and obtained, however, only by the seamen.
The ship will therefore soon be able to enter service on the routes connecting Southern Europe with Algeria.
Building of ferry
The ferry was built in 1978 by the Danish shipyard Aalborg Værft A/S in Aalborg, has a gross tonnage of 19,593 tons, can carry 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 purchased by 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.
“Mattei Plan for Africa”
As revealed by SHIPPING ITALY last September, the purchase of the Moby Corse ferry and the investment made by Ferry Med Srl would be part of the broader Italian political program dubbed “Mattei Plan for Africa” and would also be viewed favorably by the Algerian Ministry of Transport.
According to the little information, the long-term project would aim to purchase other ro-pax ships to create a new network of lines for the transport of people and rolling cargo between Italy, France and Spain to Algeria.
This is a market that has so far been served mainly by the public shipping company Algerie Ferries, while Gnv is preparing to add its own connection from the south of France, just as the newcomer Nouris Elbahr Ferries has recently started a line with the Cracovia ferry between the port of Marseille and Algiers.
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