Canadian reorganization law doesn't have the neat categories that U.S. law does -- the six different Chapters that we hear of so often (Not only am I not a lawyer, neither am I an accountant, so this is just my interpretation of information I've tried to research in the last week or so).
With that caveat, it looks to me that what Nautilus is doing is akin to what would be in the U.S. a Chapter 11 (reorganization under some protection from creditors), rather than what would be a Chapter 7 filing (liquidation of the company outright). In other words it is seeking protection from creditors it cannot pay, but has not yet been fully declared insolvent and in need of liquidation.
As for the company's tangible assets, the last financial information released lists the Seafloor Production Tools (the big honking machines) as an asset of the company that it valued somewhere around $250 million.... and those reports say that as of Sept. 30 of last year, the SPTs were still in storage in PNG, not on the ship.
But a December article on the Maritime Executive Web site makes it a little more unclear -- a control console for the SPTs was being installed on the ship even as the shipyard was in the process of terminating the contract with MAC, and by extension Nautilus ... where the SPTs themselves are is unclear from this article.
Pictures on the Nautilus Web site appear to show cranes and giant spools for the miles long control cables being installed on the ship at the shipyard (shipbuilding cranes with Chinese symbols are visible), but the photos of the SPTs themselves seem to be from when they were being loaded on a ship to be transported from Britain, where they were built, to PNG, prior to their testing there..
The only other clue I could find was a story on Nautilus from February 2018 that said that testing of the SPTs was complete and they were being prepared for shipment to the shipyard in China (but if the Nautilus issued financial report from Sept. is correct, that had not happened at that point at least) ... So, bottom line, it is unclear from accessible public information who is in possession of the company's major tangible asset and where the SPTs are located... Certainly the company knows where they are, but we don't.
I'm sticking with my Game Over thesis, but it'd certainly be nice to know where that $250 million worth of stuff is stashed ... as Monk said, the company's total debt still (as of its statement last week) is less than $20 million, so even though more than $500 million that various shareholders have invested has vaporized (at least as far as share price is concerned), the company could still be worth a fair amount as a dismembered corporate corpse. Turning those assets into cash might be difficult, though -- monetizing the leases would be a dicey proposition, I'd imagine ... and you have to figure that the resale value of those giant machines would be somewhat less than their book value ... so, anybody looking a good, almost never used enormous underwater rock driller, or crusher or slurry sucker?
I would like an actual certificate for at least some of my shares ... just to have a physical memento of this crazy journey.
With that caveat, it looks to me that what Nautilus is doing is akin to what would be in the U.S. a Chapter 11 (reorganization under some protection from creditors), rather than what would be a Chapter 7 filing (liquidation of the company outright). In other words it is seeking protection from creditors it cannot pay, but has not yet been fully declared insolvent and in need of liquidation.
As for the company's tangible assets, the last financial information released lists the Seafloor Production Tools (the big honking machines) as an asset of the company that it valued somewhere around $250 million.... and those reports say that as of Sept. 30 of last year, the SPTs were still in storage in PNG, not on the ship.
But a December article on the Maritime Executive Web site makes it a little more unclear -- a control console for the SPTs was being installed on the ship even as the shipyard was in the process of terminating the contract with MAC, and by extension Nautilus ... where the SPTs themselves are is unclear from this article.
Pictures on the Nautilus Web site appear to show cranes and giant spools for the miles long control cables being installed on the ship at the shipyard (shipbuilding cranes with Chinese symbols are visible), but the photos of the SPTs themselves seem to be from when they were being loaded on a ship to be transported from Britain, where they were built, to PNG, prior to their testing there..
The only other clue I could find was a story on Nautilus from February 2018 that said that testing of the SPTs was complete and they were being prepared for shipment to the shipyard in China (but if the Nautilus issued financial report from Sept. is correct, that had not happened at that point at least) ... So, bottom line, it is unclear from accessible public information who is in possession of the company's major tangible asset and where the SPTs are located... Certainly the company knows where they are, but we don't.
I'm sticking with my Game Over thesis, but it'd certainly be nice to know where that $250 million worth of stuff is stashed ... as Monk said, the company's total debt still (as of its statement last week) is less than $20 million, so even though more than $500 million that various shareholders have invested has vaporized (at least as far as share price is concerned), the company could still be worth a fair amount as a dismembered corporate corpse. Turning those assets into cash might be difficult, though -- monetizing the leases would be a dicey proposition, I'd imagine ... and you have to figure that the resale value of those giant machines would be somewhat less than their book value ... so, anybody looking a good, almost never used enormous underwater rock driller, or crusher or slurry sucker?
I would like an actual certificate for at least some of my shares ... just to have a physical memento of this crazy journey.