Ukraine war
Mega yacht “Dilbar” finally frozen in Hamburg: It’s probably going to be really expensive for Blohm+Voss now
Hundreds of millions of euros parked under tarpaulins as high as a house: Alisher Usmanow’s “Dilbar” has frozen and is now the responsibility of the shipyard.
© Markus Scholz / Picture Alliance
The mega yacht “Dilbar” is said to officially belong to Alisher Usmanov’s sister Gulbahor Ismailova. Like her brother, she is on the EU sanctions list. The ship is then considered “frozen”. It is not confiscated.
The gigantic ship has been in Hamburg since the end of October. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, picking it up by its supposed owner Alisher Usmanow became more and more complicated due to sanctions. And if Blohm+Voss for the mega yacht “Dilbar” (IMO 9661792) can’t find a better spot, the 156-meter ship will probably shape Hamburg’s cityscape for the time being. As the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reports, investigators have succeeded in clarifying the ownership situation and clearly naming the sister of the sanctioned oligarch Alisher Usmanov, Gulbahor Ismailowa, as the current owner. The “Dilbar” is now frozen.
This was achieved through weeks of investigations and the evaluation of contracts that the Blohm+Voss parent company NVL (Naval Vessels Lürssen) had concluded for work on the “Dilbar”. According to the report, this revealed that a company called Navis Marine Ltd. had placed the order in the Cayman Islands. This company could be attributed to a holding company in Cyprus, the shares of which in turn belonged to a Swiss company acting on trust for a London company called “The Sisters Trust”. Only this company construct names Ismailowa as the beneficial owner.
“Dilbar” unfit to drive
Ismailova has been on the EU sanctions list since last week, so the “Dilbar” is frozen. This means: According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the ship “may not be used for the acquisition of funds, goods or services”, nor “sold, rented or otherwise used as a source of income.” Theoretically, since the “Dilbar” was not confiscated, the yacht may continue to be used privately. But that is not possible, because the mega-yacht is currently in dry dock and cannot sail towards the North Sea without currently inadmissible work.
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Because a frozen asset also affects people who are tasked with working on it. The ministry writes: “This ban is aimed at the listed person/entity, but also at all other persons, entities or state bodies who deal with the matter. In addition, there is also a so-called provision ban on listed persons and entities , listed persons may not be provided with funds or economic resources.” Translated: Blohm+Voss, i.e. Lürssen, is not allowed to carry out any work on the yacht.
Five-digit amounts every day
For the shipyard, whose 65-page maintenance contract apparently provided the authorities with the crucial information about the owner, this is becoming a problem on several levels. Due to the lack of confiscation by the state, the state does not have to pay for any costs incurred. According to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, Lürssen currently has to carry this himself. For the sixth-largest yacht in the world, the daily amounts are in five figures, it is said.
At the same time, the “Dilbar” is blocking the Blohm+Voss Dock Elbe 17, taking up valuable space that the shipyard had certainly already planned for other projects – because it doesn’t look like the situation will change anytime soon. A request from starwhat is planned in this situation remained unanswered. A spokeswoman only said: “Please understand that we will not make any comments about our customers and their projects or about our internal processes.”
Unfortunately for the shipyard, it is precisely this situation that allows the authorities to avoid costly confiscation. Because for the implementation, “concrete evidence would have to exist that sanctions violations could be committed with regard to this matter.” This can be ruled out in the case of the “Dilbar” because it cannot be moved in its current state. A win-win for the authorities, a disaster for the shipyard.
The situation is similar in other EU countries
The situation is similar for other shipyards, such as La Ciotat Shipyards, which in France cannot lose sight of Igor Ivanovich Sechin’s “Amore Vero”. There it was said last week that you continue to write invoices every day, but you don’t know who to send them to. In Spain it looks comparably complicated. At the moment, only Italy seems to be paying for the costs incurred as a result of frozen yachts, where the authorities will initially demand full reimbursement from the collector if they are released.
source: SZ