Moby Group (Moby Lines, Tirrenia, Toremar)

[hhvferry]

Moby's Livorno-Bastia route is a real smorgasbord of tonnage at the moment. The daily round trip was covered by the Moby Orli on Thursday, the Moby Vincent on Friday, the Sharden today whilst tomorrow the Moby Kiss is being summoned from Piombino for it.

[ropax]

The Corse, together with the Moby Dada, Moby Zaza, Bithia and Janas are not given roles at this stage.

All these ferries are since longer time officially for sale... - but no buyers to see... .
I think that Moby has more and more much too much ferries and capacity for their routes... .

[hhvferry]

Well they will soon have taken delivery of two brand new large ships, it's to be expected that a couple will drop out of the fleet. They have found profit in the charter market recently but GNV are most likely taking a close look at whether the Bithia and Janas can be of use for them.

One thing's for certain, Moby won't be selling ships to third parties they would otherwise want to keep or that they need to maintain operations.

[hhvferry]

Moby group have opened Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily bookings for summer 2024. Elba and Giglio not yet open but I'd not really expect significant changes to these operations.

The pre-announced new Genoa-Ajaccio route is, in fact, somewhat intermittent and is a reworking of the schedules of the Moby Tommy and the Athara on the Genoa-Porto Torres route which call in at Ajaccio en-route. The Ajaccio calls are mid-week only.
The core schedule is (from both ends) d 2100, a 0730
When sailing via Ajaccio it is d Genoa 2100 a/d Ajaccio 0600/0700 a Porto Torres 1000 and d Porto Torres 2000 a/d Ajaccio 2300/2359 a Genoa 0800

As expected the revived Piombino-Bastia route will be operated by the Moby Kiss from the Piombino-Portoferraio route. This will run on peak Saturdays and Sundays only, d Piombino 0830 a Bastia 1130, d Bastia 1230 a Piombini 1530

Moby Drea and Moby Otta return (for their 50th and 49th summers respectively) on the Genoa-Olbia route. Moby Vincent celebrates her half century in 2024 and continues on the Livorno-Bastia route.

Moby Orli will finally take up her planned station on the seasonal Genoa-Bastia route in place of the Moby Corse.

The Corse, together with the Moby Dada, Moby Zaza, Bithia and Janas are not given roles at this stage.

moby 2024 open for booking.jpg

Below is the combined Moby fleet deployment for next summer as currently indicated by the booking engine.

Moby Lines branded
Moby Fantasy - Livorno-Olbia
Moby Legacy - Livorno-Olbia

Moby Aki - Genoa-Olbia, Piombino-Olbia, Civitavecchia-Olbia, Genoa-Bastia (Bastia day returns only on Sat/Sun late June to 1st Sept, plus Fridays in August)
Moby Wonder - Genoa-Olbia, Piombino-Olbia, Civitavecchia-Olbia, Genoa-Bastia (Bastia day returns only on Sat/Sun late June to 1st Sept, plus Fridays in August)

Moby Vinci - Civitavecchia-Olbia, Piombino-Olbia, Genoa-Olbia

Moby Drea - Genoa-Olbia
Moby Otta - Genoa-Olbia

Moby Kiss - Summer Saturdays & Sundays Piombino-Bastia day trip. Rest of the time TBC but expect to run Piombino-Portoferraio
Moby Ale - TBC but expect to run Piombino-Portoferraio or Piombino-Cavo
Moby Baby Two - TBC but expect to run Piombino-Portoferraio
Moby Niki - TBC but expect to run Piombino-Portoferraio

Moby Dada - No allocation
Moby Corse - No allocation
Moby Zaza - No allocation, chartered to SNAV for Ancona-Split in summer 2023
Moby Vincent - Livorno-Bastia
Moby Orli - Genoa-Bastia

Bastia - TBC but expect to be used at Elba
Giraglia - TBC but expect to run Santa Teresa di Gallura-Bonifacio


Tirrenia branded
Athara - Genoa-[Ajaccio]-Porto Torres
Bithia - No allocation
Janas - No allocation, chartered to GNV for Genoa-Palermo in summer 2023

Sharden - Civitavecchia-Olbia, Piombino-Olbia, Genoa-Olbia

Vincenzo Florio - Naples-Palermo
Raffaele Rubattino - Naples-Palermo

Moby Tommy - Genoa-[Ajaccio]-Porto Torres


Toremar branded
Oglasa - TBC but expect to run Piombino-Portoferraio
Marmorica - TBC but expect to run Piombino-Portoferraio
Liburna - TBC but expect to run Livorno-Gorgona-Capraia
Stelio Montomoli - TBC but expect to run Piombino-Portoferraio
Giovanni Bellini - TBC but expect to run Piombino-Rio Marina

Rio Marina Bella - TBC but expect to run Piombino-Rio Marina, Piombino-Portoferraio

Schiopparello Jet - TBC but expect to run Piombino-Cavo-Portoferraio

Giuseppe Rum - TBC but expect to run Porto Santo Stefano-Giglio

Elba, the Santa Teresa di Gallura-Bonifacio route and all the Toremar routes have also now opened for summer 2024 bookings and the allocations are as anticipated above. For confirmation:

Moby Lines branded
Moby Kiss - Summer Saturdays & Sundays Piombino-Bastia day trip. Rest of the time Piombino-Portoferraio
Moby Ale - Piombino-Portoferraio
Moby Baby Two - Piombino-Portoferraio
Moby Niki - Piombino-Portoferraio

Bastia - Piombino-Cavo
Giraglia - Santa Teresa di Gallura-Bonifacio


Toremar branded
Oglasa - Piombino-Portoferraio
Marmorica - Piombino-Portoferraio
Liburna - Livorno-Gorgona-Capraia
Stelio Montomoli - Piombino-Portoferraio
Giovanni Bellini - Piombino-Rio Marina-[Pianosa]

Rio Marina Bella - Piombino-Rio Marina, Piombino-Portoferraio

Schiopparello Jet - Piombino-Cavo-Portoferraio

Giuseppe Rum - Porto Santo Stefano-Giglio

[hhvferry]

Interestingly on Friday night Tirrenia's usually very reliable Naples-Palermo ships Raffaele Rubattino and Vincenzo Florio, purpose-built for the route, didn't venture out in the rough weather.

Their GNV rivals, the ex-North Sea Ferries pair built for rougher seas than this, had no such concerns and were happy to make their scheduled overnight crossings.

[hhvferry]

In a change to the original summer 2024 ship allocation the Moby Zaza is now programmed to take the full season of Livorno-Bastia sailings in place of the Moby Vincent.

The Vincent has been operating this route, with only a couple of breaks when chartered out or deployed elsewhere, for the past 33 years. In recent years reliability has become a little erratic and I wonder if this means she will finally be despatched to meet her maker, just shy of her 50th birthday. Or maybe there is another twist in the story of this very useful ship, which, alongside her three sisters, really were the grandmothers of modern ro-paxes.

Moby Vincent (ex-Stena Normandica, St Brendan) at Livorno

[hhvferry]

The latest date for the Moby Legacy entering service on the Livorno-Olbia route is now 7th March according to the Moby booking engine.

[hhvferry]

An interesting document linked to on Navi e Armorati (doc attached at the bottom) showing Moby trying to renegotiate the agreed settlement to creditors. I've pasted the exec. summary further down.

As someone who spends a lot of time doing financial forecasting some of the misses vs plan showing in the P&L table are mindboggling to me (unless I'm missing something). Underforecasting the cost of 'Maritime personnel' by 50% and admin personnel by 23% both seem particularly incredible. (Less important there's also an annoying inconsistency in the positive or negativity used in the % column!)

Moby September 2023 YTD Management Accounts vs plan

Moby & CIN
Recent Updates and New Financial Proposal
November, 2023

Executive Summary

Update on performance
As a consequence of the geopolitical issues, bunker cost is still significantly higher than expected in the Concordato Plan. As a consequence, despite of the ability of the Companies to meet the expected revenues and to mitigate the bunker cost through aggressive cost cutting plan, EBITDA expected for 2023 will be about 50% lower than the Concordato Plan
● As per the current bunker cost, it is expected that such lower profitability could also impact the future operating cash flows
● In light of that, the Group is not able to implement the OpCo-ShipCo transaction envisaged in the Paraconcordatario Agreement (“PCA”) without relevant amendments

Recent updates on Concordato procedure
● Whether the two Concordato procedures will not be implemented by December 6th 2023, both the Companies could face a risk of Concordato resolution and the opening of a major insolvency procedure
● In order to avoid this risk, Moby and CIN have identified an alternative solution in order to execute the two Concordato procedures by December 6th 2023 through a cash settlement to the financial creditors thanks to the commitment from a third party for a financing of €315.8m
● The availability of this financing depends on the ability of the Companies to pay the non financial creditors before the release of the financing. Both the Companies have a cash position able to face such payments on time

New Proposal
● Through the financing Moby has offered to the financial creditors (both Bondholders and Banks) a cash settlement by December 6th 2023 at the following values:
➢ 65,49% of Concordato value for Option B holders (meaning 70% of nominal value for bondholders);
➢ 63,60% for Option A holders.
● The proposal, which offer a significant better recovery than any other insolvency procedure (for value, timing and execution risk), is subject to:
➢ Approval by 75% of the bondholders in the bondholders meeting scheduled for November 24th 2023;
➢ Approval by the banks.

Moby_Presentation_2023.pdf

Moby Group Presentation, November 2023

Source: https://static.moby.it/ir/2023/Moby_Presentation_2023.pdf

[fabthi]

It's a dead-man-walking company.
Unless they manage to fill up every single trip of the two new mega ferries (which I doubt), they will go bankrupt.
It's not that distant the day Aponte will eventually decide to take over.

[ropax]

Unless they manage to fill up every single trip of the two new mega ferries (which I doubt)

I have watched the booking-engine for the much smaller Moby Tommy longer time - never was anything full-booked. Always free space for cars, trucks, free cabins etc. . Also for me totally unclear how they want to fill now the much much bigger Fantasy and Legacy daily - with their much bigger crew-costs - but not one special attraction for the passengers onboard.

Would has been much better if they would have ordered 3 smaller - but more attractive ferries instead of 2 expensive "giants".

Only positive point at Moby for the passengers are the often low ticket-prices for cars+pax.
 

[hhvferry]

Unless they manage to fill up every single trip of the two new mega ferries (which I doubt)

I have watched the booking-engine for the much smaller Moby Tommy longer time - never was anything full-booked. Always free space for cars, trucks, free cabins etc. . Also for me totally unclear how they want to fill now the much much bigger Fantasy and Legacy daily - with their much bigger crew-costs - but not one special attraction for the passengers onboard.

Would has been much better if they would have ordered 3 smaller - but more attractive ferries instead of 2 expensive "giants".

Only positive point at Moby for the passengers are the often low ticket-prices for cars+pax.
 

Unless I've missed something the Moby Tommy hasn't operated the Livorno-Olbia route for a long time.

Again, and I do wish you'd respond on this point as I keep making it and you keep complaining about the ships: we have to remember which ships the two new vessels are replacing. They are a serious upgrade on the Sharden and Nuraghes/Moby Vinci.

Whether they can win back all the freight traffic lost to Grimaldi we'll see. Perhaps they won't really turn the corner until MSC take full control which I imagine is only a matter of time if the current management keep missing their targets and promises like this.

[ManiaNave]

I have watched the booking-engine for the much smaller Moby Tommy longer time - never was anything full-booked. Always free space for cars, trucks, free cabins etc. . Also for me totally unclear how they want to fill now the much much bigger Fantasy and Legacy daily - with their much bigger crew-costs - but not one special attraction for the passengers onboard.

Would has been much better if they would have ordered 3 smaller - but more attractive ferries instead of 2 expensive "giants".

Only positive point at Moby for the passengers are the often low ticket-prices for cars+pax.

Unless I've missed something the Moby Tommy hasn't operated the Livorno-Olbia route for a long time.

Again, and I do wish you'd respond on this point as I keep making it and you keep complaining about the ships: we have to remember which ships the two new vessels are replacing. They are a serious upgrade on the Sharden and Nuraghes/Moby Vinci.

Whether they can win back all the freight traffic lost to Grimaldi we'll see. Perhaps they won't really turn the corner until MSC take full control which I imagine is only a matter of time if the current management keep missing their targets and promises like this.

Moby must understand that he must lower his prices if he wants people on board, just look at the clear difference in price between Grimaldi and Moby on the Livorno-Olbia (I'm talking about summer).

[fabthi]

Moby must understand that he must lower his prices if he wants people on board, just look at the clear difference in price between Grimaldi and Moby on the Livorno-Olbia (I'm talking about summer).

I agree with you.
Only, please note that the lower prices Grimaldi is able to offer come with a downside all travelers of this company know very well: the terrible level of services (in terms of punctuality, reliability, cleanliness, courtesy) it provides.
I haven't sailed on Grimaldi's ships in the Tirrenian Sea but I've done it a few times in the Adriatic, so I know what I'm talking about.

[ManiaNave]

Moby must understand that he must lower his prices if he wants people on board, just look at the clear difference in price between Grimaldi and Moby on the Livorno-Olbia (I'm talking about summer).

I agree with you.
Only, please note that the lower prices Grimaldi is able to offer come with a downside all travelers of this company know very well: the terrible level of services (in terms of punctuality, reliability, cleanliness, courtesy) it provides.
I haven't sailed on Grimaldi's ships in the Tirrenian Sea but I've done it a few times in the Adriatic, so I know what I'm talking about.

on the issue of punctuality, I agree with you, in fact Grimaldi's ships are rarely on time both in summer and in low season, but from a cleanliness point of view they are almost the same (obviously not counting Moby Fantasy)

[fabthi]

It's a dead-man-walking company.
Unless they manage to fill up every single trip of the two new mega ferries (which I doubt), they will go bankrupt.
It's not that distant the day Aponte will eventually decide to take over.

I've been an easy prophet.
https://www.shippingitaly.it/2023/11/24 ... preventivo
Aponte is lending Moby 315mln euros to help it pay its debts, and skip bankruptcy (for now)

[hhvferry]

Makes complete sense. With this move Aponte must surely effectively, if not legally, have complete control over Moby. Onorato has had a good run but he would never have the financial power to win vs Grimaldi.

Not sure of the long-term game though for Aponte, unless it's just ego. Given that GNV doesn't make any money what does adding another loss-making ferry company gain him.

[fabthi]

Not sure of the long-term game though for Aponte, unless it's just ego. Given that GNV doesn't make any money what does adding another loss-making ferry company gain him.

I don't think it's about ego.
Aponte already leads in Genoa.
By taking over Moby, he raises a flag in Livorno and brings competition right at Grimaldi's most important (and most lucrative) port.
Then, how long will Grimaldi resist competing with the financial power of the MSC group?
 

[baypaul]

MSC has never been hesitant at playing a long game. Their cruise line almost certainly made massive losses in its fast expansion phase, but now is a force to be reckoned with. I could imagine them using Moby as a start of a developing ferry empire. 

[fabthi]

MSC has never been hesitant at playing a long game.

Correct.
Aponte has a bigger plan in mind than just adding another ferry company to his group.
He's recently become the majority shareholder of the second (and only privately owned) bullet trains operator (NTV/Italo) in Italy and is also expanding in railway freight. 
The cruise ship company is an established player in that sector.
Let alone MSC being the n.1 container shipping company in the world.
He is unfolding an articulated plan of logistics both for goods and people which most likely will go beyond Europe.
From this perspective, losing a temporary amount of money to acquire a piece (Moby) of this business project is certainly not a problem.
 

[juanito]

Not sure of the long-term game though for Aponte, unless it's just ego. Given that GNV doesn't make any money what does adding another loss-making ferry company gain him.

I don't think it's about ego.
Aponte already leads in Genoa.
By taking over Moby, he raises a flag in Livorno and brings competition right at Grimaldi's most important (and most lucrative) port.
Then, how long will Grimaldi resist competing with the financial power of the MSC group?

I think maybe 🤔 now is time for Grimaldi to look to another market where to insure the future growth for its ferry division... Maybe this market is the Gibraltar strait (Spain/Moroccan),  there seems that passenger and roro traffic is a no stop growth...

[hhvferry]

The proposed amendment to the original refinancing arrangement was passed without much trouble.

Milan, November 24, 2023

MEETING OF THE HOLDERS OF THE “7.75% SENIOR SECURED NOTES DUE 2023” (ISIN CODE: XS1361300996 (144A) / XS1361301457 (REG S)) HELD ON 24 NOVEMBER 2023

Results Announcement

On 24 November 2023, the meeting of the holders of the “7.75% Senior Secured Notes due 2023” (ISIN Code: XS1361300996 (144A) / XS1361301457 (REG S)) issued by Onorato Armatori S.p.A., now Moby S.p.A., was held on first call and resolved to approve, with the favourable vote of 89.63% of the aggregate principal amount of the outstanding notes, the following resolution:

Therefore, the resolution has been successfully passed.

Link to Moby official announcement: https://static.moby.it/ir/2023/PressRelease_Moby_Results_Announcement_24_11_23.pdf