EUROCONTAINER Shipping's four ships are to be taken over by its biggest creditor, the Japanese company, Marubeni, under a scheme of arrangement drawn up by the company examiner.

The High Court yesterday indicated approval of the scheme and put it down for mention again next week, to allow the approval of the Department of the Marine for the sale of the ships to be sought.

Marubeni Shipping, which helped finance the buy out of the ships from Bell Lines, is owed around £13 million. Under the scheme of arrangement drawn up by Mr David Hughes of Ernst & Young, Marubeni is to take ownership of the four vessels, valued at around £10 million. It is also to invest up to £2 million as part of the scheme, which is expected to see up to 27 of the 47 existing staff reemployed.

Eurocontainer Shipping went into examinership in April following a petition from its shareholders, Mr Joseph Kenny, Mr John O'Shea and Mr Vincent Kenny. Total debts are believed to have been around £17 million.

Under the scheme of arrangement, employees are to receive their full statutory entitlements plus part of the money promised under a previous restructuring agreement.

One of the ships, the Euro Power, has been tied up in Waterford for the last four months with its crew claiming that the examiner will not pay them all their entitlements. However, Mr Hughes has pointed out that they will receive considerably more than they would have got in the event of a liquidation.

Two of the other ships are in Rotterdam and the fourth is in Avonmouth, off Bristol. It was not clear last night how many of the crew would accept the scheme of arrangement and how many would continue to object. However, with the approval of the court, the scheme of arrangement is set to go ahead.

Of the other creditors, Bell Lines, which was owed £1 million, was a secured creditor and will receive around £750,000. The preferential creditors are to receive 20p in the pound, while the unsecured creditors will receive 15p in the pound.

A number of possible investors have looked at the possibility of putting money into ECS since it went into examinership.