TT Express waits for best buyer

The TT Express
The TT Express

The National Infrastructure Development Co Ltd (Nidco) is hoping to sell the TT Express at the highest price possible.

The vessel will be sold in its current state because conducting any type of repairs on the vessel will not raise its resale value.

Nidco chairman Herbert George told Newsday, on Friday, Government was approached by one buyer but the offer was declined because it was too low.

He said Nidco is searching for a better price and he prefers not to say what figure they are hoping to sell the vessel at “because we don’t want to affect the offers that may come our way. Once you put a price out there, they will be guided by that and our future efforts will be doomed.”

He said Nidco will short-list three brokers who will then be invited to submit a proposal. “Based on their proposals the best one will be chosen. We will do it competitively. We won’t just hand-pick one and just go,” he said. When the vessel is sold, the broker will be paid an agreed percentage of the cost.

“We want a broker who is well positioned and by that I mean someone who has done the sale of vessels, someone who is in an environment where there are a lot of those vessels that is in operation so chances of somebody being in that environment wanted a used vessel.”The vessel was initially sent on dry dock for its routine maintenance last February, however, the Prime Minister announced five months after that Government had decided to sell the ferry because it became too costly to maintain. The repairs included critical mechanical work on all four engines, hydraulic repairs and electrical and auxiliary system failure damage repairs.

Dr Rowley said when he entered office in 2015, he met the TT Express and Spirit in disrepair due to the lack of proper maintenance to both vessels.

He said while the Spirit managed to be salvage, the Express continued to experience several electrical and mechanical issues over the years

He said the “resell market for vessels like the Express is quite good now, so it is a good time to sell.”

The TT Express was purchased for US$20 million in 2008. A preliminary budget, done last year, showed it will take Government $10 million to complete all repairs; if they hadn’t decide to sell the boat. The vessel was already 11 years old when it was put into service in TT.

“We are talking about a vessel that is over 20 odd years old and to spend that money on the vessel not knowing the life expectancy, it never went on dry-dock it was taken out of service,” he said.

Port Authority (PATT) chairman Lyle Alexander said the decision to pull the vessel out of service when PATT realised it would not have been “economically prudent to repair it based on the cost of repairs.”

While the TT Express is awaiting a buyer, it remains moored near the port in Port of Spain.

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