Hauliers wait for Bell
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• Around 500 British and Irish container hauliers will soon know how much they can hope to recoup from the crisis-struck shipping company Bell Lines.
The Irish High Court-appointed examiner will be asking the company's creditors to vote on a survival plan, known as a scheme of arrangement, at a meeting in Dublin at the end of April. Hauliers unable to attend will also be able to vote by proxy or postal vote.
But the Irish High Court will have the final say on the suitability of the scheme of
arrangement for rescuing the company and its creditors—it is expected to make its ruling on 19 May.
Although Bell Lines is paying hauliers for current work on a weekly basis, it owes some £10m for the three months to 5 February and has a total trading debt of £20m.
Examiner David Hughes from accountants Ernst & Young is drawing up a rationalisation plan which could cost jobs among Bell Lines' 650 employees based in Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands.
Irish-owned Bell Lines charters ships, using them to carry its own containers between Ireland, the UK and the Continent via Rotterdam. It contracts out all its transport.