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ubsidiaries of PT Berlian Laju Tanker (BLTA), Indonesia’s largest oil and gas shipping firm, have secured protection from a United States court to temporarily protect the companies’ ships from being impounded.

“The board now wishes to announce that certain of the subsidiaries have applied for, and today obtained, interim orders from the court in New York, under chapter 15 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, prohibiting the arrest of their vessels in the United States, among other things,” Berlian Laju said in a stock exchange filing submitted on Friday.

“A further hearing of the application will take place on March 23, 2012,” the file read.

The company, Indonesia’s largest shipping firm by market value, also won a court order earlier this week from the Singapore High Court to prevent its ships from being impounded during a three-month restructuring program.

Berlian Laju expects these rulings to ease the firm’s aim to restructure its debts to creditors, after deciding in January to cease payments on its US$418 million debt due this year, from a total of $1.9 billion outstanding.

“This [the US order] is another step in ensuring that BLT’s restructuring process can move along quickly and effectively, and I am pleased with its progress so far,” Berlian Laju president director, Widihardja Tanudjaja, said.

The company reiterated its efforts to resolve its debt woes and has yet to file a default in the US or elsewhere, after the global
economic downturn and growing fleet numbers lowered freight rates, pushing up bunker-fuel costs and other operating costs, according to Widihardja.

To avoid default, Berlian Laju must undergo massive restructuring of asset sales, local analysts have said.

Berlian Laju may present a plan to creditors in early May as it seeks to restructure debts and leases, Bloomberg reported. It is currently in active negotiations with ship owners and has begun talks with lenders, led by DNB ASA, Norway’s largest financial services group, according to Berlian Laju vice president for restructuring, Cosimo Borelli.

The company had a fleet of 72 vessels as of last December, of which about 50 ships are owned by subsidiaries and under mortgages to banks. Other lenders include European firms ING Groep NV, NIBC Bank NV, Nordea Bank AB and Standard Chartered Plc.

According to a financial report in September 2011, Berlian Laju had $105.6 million in cash. “The free cash available to the company is less than that today,” Borelli said, declining to elaborate further.

Berlian Laju is 37.95-percent owned by PT Tunggaladhi Baskara, 16.05 percent by Citibank Singapore S/A CBSG-CDP Indonesia, 0.02 percent by its president director, leaving 46 percent under public ownership.

Shares of Berlian Laju were suspended from Singapore and Jakarta trading after it announced the debt standstill early in January, after falling more than 50 percent within the previous year.

Fitch Ratings has placed Berlian Laju’s CCC rating, one grade above a default rating, on watch negative, after downgrading the firm’s credit ratings last December over heightened liquidity risks.

—JP/ Raras Cahyafitri