The trustee-manager of the owner of 16 Panamax vessels said the five-working-day grace period to pay the S$4.26 million ($2.99 million) interest payment on an S$100 million bond due on Nov. 15 had lapsed.

“As a result of cross default and/or cross acceleration clauses contained in the loan agreements to which the trustee-manager or subsidiaries of the Trust are a party, the Trust is also in default under such loan agreements,” Rickmers Maritime Trust said.

The Trust said it is continuing negotiations with its senior lenders to obtain standstills and/or waivers over its obligations under existing loan facilities.

The suspension of trading in Rickmers Maritime shares on the Singapore stock exchange since Nov. 15 will continue “until the going concern issue has been resolved.”

An extraordinary meeting of shareholders on Oct. 31 approved a resolution calling for the winding up of the Trust if its planned financial restructuring failed to win the approval of unit holders.

Rickmers had to cancel a meeting of bondholders in the following week that was set to vote on a restructuring of the S$100 million bond due to mature in May 2017 because there were insufficient investors to form a quorum.

A successful restructuring would give Rickmers access to a new amortizing loan facility of up to $260.2 million from its senior lenders to refinance the bulk of its outstanding debt.

Rickmers has been hard hit by the collapse in employment and charter rates for 3,000 to 5,000 twenty-foot-equivalent-unit Panamax vessels following the widening of the Panama Canal, which enabled the transit of larger ships.

The company has laid up 5 of its 16 ships and is trading 6 on the spot market.