Floatech Must Pay $6,25M to Drydocks World, Court Rules

A Dubai court has ruled that Floatech, a subsidiary of Malaysia's TH Heavy Engineering, must pay $6,25 million to Dubai's Drydocks World.

Drydocks World in April 2019 presented Floatech with a writ of summons demanding Floatech to pay the $6,224,494 for the wharfage charges, maintenance, repairs, and installation equipment carried out by Drydocks World on Layang FPSO vessel.

THHE said Wednesday that Dubai Court of First Instance had rendered its judgment against Floatech, an 80% subsidiary of THHE, on January 21, 2020.

The company explained that the judgment order - in Arabic - was furnished to the company by its counsel on February 13, 2020, and was sent for official translation. The translated order was received by the company on February 18, 2020.

THHE said: "The judgment reads as follows “the court ruled to oblige the defendant to pay the sum of US$ 6,250,000 equivalent to AED 22,937,500 to the claimant without legal or agreeable interests or any other forms of fees that should be charged to the vessel till the date of 30.04.2020, berthing charges shall be running after the said date. The court additionally obliged the parties to bear their own cost incurred on the current proceedings”.

"Floatech has the right to appeal to the said judgment within 30 days from the date of the said judgment date. Floatech is in the midst of discussion with its legal counsel on the best next course of action," THEE added.

"THHE does not expect to incur any additional losses arising from the judgment, save for the legal fees that were incurred in relation to legal representation for THHE, as the amount ruled by the Dubai Court of First Instance has been accrued for," THHE said.

The Malaysian fabrication company had in 2014 won a contract from JX Nippon Oil and Gas to supply an FPSO for the Layang development offshore Malaysia, and Floatech was expected to deliver the previously acquired FPSO Deep Producer 1 for the project.

However, the financially distressed THHE failed to deliver the FPSO by June 30, 2016. The contract for the delivery of an FPSO for the Layang project was then novated to Yinson, which last year delivered its Helang FPSO for the project. Production from the offshore field started in December 2019.

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