A federal court in Virginia granted RMS Titanic Inc. the total fair market value of all artifacts it has salvaged from the Titanic over two decades -- a salvage award worth $110 million.
RMS Titanic Inc. is a unit of Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions Inc. (NASDAQ: PRXI).
The salvage award is based upon the company's work recovering and conserving more than 3,000 artifacts from the wreck of Titanic during expeditions in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2004.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia reserved the right to determine the manner in which to pay the $110 million. It will rule by Aug. 15, 2011, whether to pay RMS Titanic Inc. a cash award from proceeds from a judicial sale or issue the company an award of title to the artifacts with certain covenants and conditions that would govern their maintenance and future disposition.
This award is in addition to some 1,800 artifacts RMS Titanic Inc. recovered in its first expedition to the wreck of Titanic in 1987. RMS Titanic Inc. already owns the title to those artifacts, which are worth an estimated $35 million.
“When Sellers Capital won its proxy fight and removed previous management in January 2009, we had two main goals: to stabilize the financial condition of the company, and to convince the court that we are trustworthy stewards of the Titanic shipwreck and artifacts and would follow a sharply different course than prior management,” said Mark Sellers, Premiere Exhibitions chairman, in a statement. “With this ruling, we believe we've now accomplished both of those goals.”
Read more: ATL co. wins $110M Titanic artifacts grant - Atlanta Business Chronicle
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