Back to the complete issue
Sunday, 11 April 2021

Pay up, then you can take the Ever Given wherever you want

The Suez Canal Authority won’t let the mega container ship that blocked the Suez Canal last month get underway until its owner agrees to pay compensation, SCA chairman Osama Rabie suggested in a televised interview on Thursday (watch, runtime: 22:19). “The vessel will remain here until investigations are complete and compensation is paid … If an agreement is reached on compensation, the boat will move immediately,” he said. The Ever Given has been moored in the Great Bitter Lake since it was dislodged at the end of March while investigators assess the ship and try and ascertain what caused it to veer into the bank of the canal

A nine-figure price tag? Though Rabie stopped short of naming a figure during the interview, he said last week that the authority could be chasing insurers and the ship’s Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen, for as much as USD 1 bn in compensation. This includes the lost revenues, which have been estimated to be around USD 15 mn per day and the cost of repairing the damage done to the canal .

Still no signs of an agreement: One advisor to the authority leading the investigation said at the start of the month that an agreement could be reached in just 3-4 days. Egypt has reportedly been in talks with Shoei Kisen for a week to settle the issue outside of court, but the two sides are yet to reach an agreement. In the event the two sides fail to reach an agreement, the matter will be handed over to Egyptian prosecutors, who will file a case against the company in the local courts.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.