Sea Containers Ltd

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Sea Containers House on the River Thames.
Sea Containers House on the River Thames.

Sea Containers Ltd. is a Bermuda-registered company which operates two main business areas: transport and container leasing.

In March 2006 the company sold its share of Orient-Express Hotels Ltd.. Sea Containers Ltd is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy status in the United States[1].

Contents

[edit] History

American former Yale University graduate and United States Navy officer James Sherwood founded Sea Containers in 1965, with initial capital of $100,000[2]. Over forty years Sherwood expanded Sea Containers from a supplier of leased cargo containers, into various shipping companies, as well as expanding the company into luxury hotels and railway trains, including the Venice-Simplon Orient Express and the Great North Eastern Railway franchise from London to Edinburgh.

Although valued with a net worth of £60million in the 2004 Sunday Times Rich List[3], as Sea Containers hit financial troubles, he has resigned from each of his companies in 2006.

[edit] Transport

[edit] Ferry services

On March 24 2006 Sea Containers announced its intention to withdraw from the ferry business. These are:

  • SeaStreak – fast ferry services between New York and New Jersey.
  • SNAV-Hoverspeed – a joint venture with Italian ferry operator SNAV. Uses the former Seacat Danmark as Zara Jet.
  • Aegean Speed Lines – a joint venture in Greece with the Eugenides Group. The service uses the former Hoverspeed Great Britain as Speedrunner 1, which operated in the English Channel and held the Hales Trophy and Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic.

The following businesses have already been discontinued:

[edit] Other

Related activities include:

  • Hart Fenton – a naval architecture and marine engineering company.
  • Sea Containers Chartering Ltd.

[edit] Rail

[edit] Containers

Sea Containers container leasing business is mainly conducted through GE SeaCo, a joint venture with GE Capital. GE SeaCo operates one of the largest marine container fleets in the world. Sea Containers also owns or partly owns five container depots, four container manufacturing facilities and a refrigerated container service business (PartCo International). In addition, it owns one container ship

[edit] Other activities

  • Sea Containers Property Services Ltd – property development, property asset management.
  • The Illustrated London News Group (ILNG) – publishing
  • Fruit farming – Sea Containers owns plantations in West Africa and South America.
  • Fairways & Swinford – UK-based business travel agency

[edit] Former Subsidiaries

[edit] Chapter 11

In March 2006, Sherwood resigned from all positions in the various Sea Containers Companies. Sherwood was replaced by company doctor Bob MacKenzie, while Ian Durant became senior vice-president of finance.

Despite selling various businesses and asets, Sea Containers announced in early October 2006 that it was unlikely to be able to pay a $115m (£62m) bond due up on 15 October. On 16 October, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The documents revealed that Sea Containers has paid Sherwood $500k, MacKenzie just under £1.4m, and Durant £1.1m[4].

On 6 November 2006 the UK Pensions regulator wrote to Sea Containers that it must pay £143m to its two UK pension schemes if it wants to wind them up[5].

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Sea Containers Ltd. - Company History
  3. ^ Sunday Times - Rich List
  4. ^ Sea Containers paid bosses £1m - Times Online
  5. ^ BBC NEWS | Business | Pension threat to Sea Containers

[edit] External links

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