Chelsea Logistics of Duterte crony Dennis Uy has booked a total of P171 million in impairment losses stemming from a fire sale of a cargo container and aborted warehouse project.
Chelsea, through its petroleum carrier subsidiary PNX-Chelsea Shipping, lost P90.3 million from the sale of MV San Pedro Calungsod for $2 million last September.
MV Calungsod, which has a book vaue of P204.2 million has been dry-docked since last year.
MV Calungsod, a cargo container built in 1996 and with a capacity of 240 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), was among 11 vessels that Chelsea bought between end of 2016 and early 2017 with no appraisal report. Management defended the lack of appraisal, stating it believed that “the acquisition costs approximate the fair values of these vessels.”
Chelsea borrowed P575 million from the Development Bank of the Philippines tor finance the acquisition of MV Calungsod and two other vessels.
Additionally, Chelsea reported an P81 million impairment loss after terminating its joint venture with Meridian Maritime Training Center earlier this year.
The joint venture, initiated in 2016 to construct and operate a P50 million training facility in Calaca, Batangas, was still under construction as of last year.
In the previous year, Chelsea wrote off P232.6 million in losses following the abandonment of a central distribution warehouse project with an initial budget of P390 million in 2019.
Chelsea’s losses surged 25 percent quarter on quarter to P613 million in the third quarter of this year, bringing its total losses for the first nine months of 2023 to P1.044 billion.
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