Case Nos: CL-2023-000206 and CL-2023-000207 - [2025] EWHC 1591 (Comm)

There are two claims which are the subjects of this judgment. The first is a claim by the shipowner Ocean Clap Shipping Ltd (‘OCSL’) for sums due from Global Offshore Services BV (‘GOSBV’, also referred to as ‘Charterers’) under a bareboat charterparty entered into on 31 December 2014 in respect of the M/V ‘Ben Nevis’ (the ‘Ben Nevis Charterparty’). The second is a claim by the shipowner MT Kailash Sarl (‘MT Kailash’) for sums due from GOSBV under a bareboat charterparty entered into on 29 May 2014 in respect of the M/V ‘Kailash’ (the ‘Kailash Charterparty’). I refer to the Ben Nevis and Kailash Charterparties together as the ‘Charterparties’. I refer to the Ben Nevis and the Kailash together as the ‘Vessels’.

OCSL and MT Kailash (together ‘Owners’) also claim for the maximum guaranteed sum under two guarantees issued in respect of the Charterparties (the ‘Guarantees’) by Charterers’ parent company Global Offshore Services Ltd (‘GOSL’, also referred to as the ‘Guarantors’), a company listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Both OCSL and MT Kailash are owned by Minsheng Financial Leasing Limited (‘Minsheng’). They are SPVs whose only business is the leasing out of the relevant vessel.

Charterers are a company incorporated in the Netherlands. Their business was as an operator of offshore service vessels. As of 2015, Charterers’ fleet was managed by Arena Ship Management Pte Ltd (‘Arena’).

The Guarantors are an Indian company which provides offshore and logistics services. At the time when the Charterparties were entered into, Charterers were 68% owned by the Guarantors and 32% owned by S2 Offshore Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of DVB Bank SE in Germany.