The shipowner died on Monday night at the age of 70.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf His holding company went bankrupt six years ago. It was the biggest bankruptcy in German maritime history, the Hamburg shipowner Bertram Rickmers owed his creditors 1.1 billion euros. Previously, he had controlled one of the world’s largest container fleets. On Monday, the fifth-generation shipowner, who would have been 71 on November 11, died in an accident at home.
During the celebrations for his wife Franziska’s 60th birthday, Rickmers fell down a flight of stairs in his Hamburg villa, reports the “Bild” newspaper. A heart attack is now speculated to be the cause.
The accident is a tragic repetition: Bertram’s mother Christa Rickmers, née Poppe, died in 2003 after falling down the stairs. She was only five years older than her son Bertram.
Bertram Rickmers: Death of a “passionate Hanseatic, restless businessman and caring father”
The death of Bertram Rickmers was announced on Monday evening by Frank Bünte, who is managing director of the new Rickmers shipping company “Asian Spirit Steamship Company” (ASSC) on Hamburg’s Alster Lake. “It is our sad duty to inform you today with a heavy heart and sadness of the sudden death of Bertram RC Rickmers,” he wrote to the shipping company’s employees. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of this passionate Hanseatic, restless entrepreneur, caring father and committed citizen of Hamburg.”
The ASSC had Bertram Rickmers entered in the commercial register at the end of 2015 – almost two years before the insolvency of his powerful Rickmers Holding. Since then, he has been involved as the largest limited partner with veto powers in the shipping company, which operates eleven smaller container ships and specializes in intra-Asian transport. His two daughters Anna Sophie Heilemann-Rickmers, 37, and Lara Marie Rickmers, 36, and his son Rickmer Clasen Rickmers, 34, who is also one of the managing directors, also hold smaller shares.
Regattas with the luxury yacht, parties in the summer house on Sylt
Bertram Rickmers, who leaves behind his wife and children as well as five grandchildren, has kept the tabloids busy for years. Not only did he take part in prominent regattas as a sailor on his luxury yacht “Clan VIII”. Newspapers such as “Bunte” also regularly reported on his extravagant parties on Sylt, where he owned a summer house.
More than that, however, Bertram Rickmers, whose father died young in 1971, repeatedly made headlines as an entrepreneur. After the bankruptcy of the family business, which had immigrated from Helgoland and was founded as a shipyard in 1834, he initially tried to start over with his brother Erck, who was twelve years his junior. In 1986, the two founded the issuing house Nordcapital, which collected money for new ships. It went well for four years, then Bertram got out. It was said that the management disagreed. On the Hamburg bank of the Elbe, the older brother switched to the shipping business.
Fueled by rivalry with his brother Erck Rickmers
The two brothers became rivals and competed in the shipping industry for years to come. At times, Bertram’s workforce grew to over 2000 employees. In 1998 Erck Rickmers followed suit. He founded the shipping group “ER Schiffahrt” in downtown Hamburg.
In 2007, Bertram listed its subsidiary Rickmers Maritime in Singapore. The number of ships managed subsequently rose to over 120. In order to finance further growth, he raised 275 million euros on the bond market in 2013, for which he promised investors almost nine percent interest.
His company is growing too fast – did the restructuring fail because of the lender?
But in the subsequent maritime crisis, which was characterized by massive overcapacities and collapsing freight rates, the course proved to be breakneck. Rickmers’ ships lost significantly in value, which burst a refinancing in 2018. HSH Nordbank called off a restructuring plan that had already been negotiated at the last minute.
In the meantime, a special expert on behalf of the Hamburg insolvency court is examining whether the bank’s actions sealed the bankruptcy in the end. If the plan had been approved by HSH in 2017, the container boom in the years since Corona would probably have brought billions into the shipping company’s coffers.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this text misrepresented Bertram Rickmers’ age at 71. However, he passed away at the age of 70. Please excuse the mistake.
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