THE PROTRACTED negotiations are finally over and Canadian Pacific Limited has completed the acquisition of the container shipping services of Lykes Bros Steamship Company.
This comes almost two years after Lykes Bros filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the US federal bankruptcy law.
CP has registered Lykes' services under a new US-based company, Lykes Lines Limited, based in Tampa, Florida and the line is now part of the CP Ships group of companies.
CP offered to acquire the container shipping service of Lykes in December 1996, 15 months after the line had filed for Chapter 11 protection.
Lykes Lines will charter in six container ships and two conventional ships formerly employed by Lykes Bros. The conventional ships are deployed in the US - Southern Africa trade.
The acquisition by CP includes the container shipping services of Lykes Lines, the Lykes Line brand name, organisation, container fleet, main vendor contracts and assumption of ongoing trade payables, receivables and other liabilities.
