Banking Services News

BPER Banca SpA has completed a naval financing for ME Marittima Emiliana SpA to a second-hand tanker built by the Chinese shipyard in Guangzhou in 2012.The tanker, originally flying under a Bahamian flag, has been renamed “Lady Rina” and is currently flying under an Italian flag. M.E. Marittima Emiliana, part of the Amoretti Armatori Group, provides transportation service of petroleum and chemical products.Watson Farley & Williams and the Mordiglia law firm of Genoa represented BPER Banca and the company respectively in the transaction.The new unit will join Amoretti’s fleet currently comprising 11 tankers all flying under an Italian flag…

The largest bank in Russia Sberbank and shipping company Sovcomflot have signed a new USD 106 million project financing agreement, with a term of up to 14 years. The funds will finance the construction of a high ice class Arctic shuttle tanker (Arc7) for the Novy Port project, under a long-term agreement with Gazprom Neft. This is the third major transaction of its kind between Sberbank and Sovcomflot. The first joint project between the companies was in 2015, to finance the construction of three Arctic shuttle tankers to transport crude oil from the Novy Port field. That agreement set an important precedent for Russian domestic credit institutions, and was named “Deal of the Year” by the international publication Marine Money.

U.S. energy firms this week cut oil rigs for an 10th week in a row to the lowest levels since December 2009, data showed on Friday, as some producers focus more on completing their drilled but uncompleted wells instead of drilling new ones. Looking forward, analysts forecast the rig count will bottom in a few months before recovering later this year when they expect crude prices to rise. Drillers removed 13 oil rigs in the week ended Feb. 26, bringing the total rig count down to 400, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report. That compares with 986 oil rigs operating in same week a year ago. In 2015, drillers cut on average 18 rigs per week for a total of 963 oil rigs for the year, the biggest annual decline since at least 1988.

Rolls-Royce announced that its Unified Bridge Design has won this year’s Ergonomics Design Award, presented by the UK Chartered Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors. The award recognizes industrial design which puts the customer at the heart of the process using their views to generate ideas, develop concepts and test prototypes and finished products. Rolls-Royce describes its Unified Bridge as a complete redesign of the ship bridge environment, including consoles, levers and software interfaces…

Shipping services that support Russia's attempts to extract oil from remote parts of the Arctic will run into difficulties as banks scale back energy financing due to Western sanctions, increasing transport costs for the frontier sector. Sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and European Union over Ukraine have targeted the delivery of oil technology, goods and services, aiming to make it impossible for Moscow to access new oil sources. The world's largest energy exporter, Russia relies on oil and gas exports for about half its federal budget.

BHP Billiton, Royal Bank of Scotland, Westpac Banking Corporation, Cargill and Minerva Marine recently completed the first trade financed iron ore trade using ESS’s CargoDocs electronic bill of lading and eUCP Presentation solutions. CargoDocs was used on a shipment from Australia to China. In this trade the electronic bill of lading was drafted by BHP Billiton in Shanghai (eliminating the need for separate document instructions). It was then approved signed and issued on behalf of Minerva Marine by Wilhelmsen Ships Services in Port Hedland, Australia. BHP Billiton created original electronic peripheral documents within CargoDocs and the whole eSet was endorsed and presented electronically to RBS under an eUCP600 letter of credit.

Capital Corp Merchant Banking, a U.S.-based merchant banking group, say they have been working on an environmentally friendly ballast water treatment system (BWTS) project with a client and have entered into USD $41-million funding agreement with them. This patent-pending project makes better, more energy-efficient use of existing ballast water treatment technologies, resulting in a smaller energy footprint of the system and decreasing the ship's power-capacity needs. The funding structure Capital Corp Merchant Banking has devised consists of providing its client with $19M in common stock…

Friede Goldman Halter, Inc., announced that it plans to retain, subject to Bankruptcy Court approval, the services of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin. Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin is an international investment banking firm providing a wide range of services including mergers and acquisitions, financial restructuring, private placements of debt and equity capital, business and securities valuations, financial opinions, litigation support, and merchant banking services. In the last decade Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin's financial restructuring professionals have consummated over $30 billion in transactions. FGH will draw upon the firm's diverse industry experience, extensive talent base, and resources to coordinate and execute a successful financial restructuring.

Cincinnati-based Midland Enterprises, which operates a fleet of barges, towboats and tugboats, has leased more than $18 million in new equipment from Firstar Bank during this past year. Midland worked with Firstar's Equipment Finance group to replace and expand its fleet of barges, which transport bulk commodities, a major portion of which is coal, principally on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterways. Bob Faillo, president of Midland Enterprises, said, "I've admired Firstar's persistence in getting our business. Wayne Shircliff, Firstar Bank's executive vice president and regional chairman, said, "Firstar is pleased to be partnering with such a fine company as Midland Enterprises and its subsidiary, the Ohio River Company. Our recent merger with U.S.

General Dynamics NASSCO has finalized a $1b contract with U.S. Shipping Partners L.P. (USS) to build nine product carrier tankers. The contract includes options for five additional ships. Construction of the first tanker is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2007, with delivery to occur by the second quarter of 2009. The product carrier tankers or “PCs” will be 183 m in length and 32.2 m in beam, with a design draft of 11.8 m. The ships are to be double hulled, weighing 49,000 dead weight tons (DWT) and will have a cargo capacity of 331,000 barrels. USS operates a fleet of 10 deep sea vessels that carry refined petroleum and chemical products among customer facilities along the U.S. coast and has 5 double-hulled, articulated tug barges on order or under construction.

Ingram Marine Group, an inland marine transportation companies, announced the following executive leadership promotions. Dale Heller, former Vice President and Chief Information Officer, has been promoted to Senior Vice President and CIO. Allen Oldham, previously Vice President of Finance and Business Development, and Controller, has been named Senior Vice President and Controller. Jim Lanier, who has served as Assistant Vice President of Internal Audit, Ingram Industries Inc., has been promoted to Vice President, Finance, Support Operations and Analysis. "As we continue to grow Ingram Marine Group, we are continuing to build on an already established leadership team by realigning these executives with increasing responsibilities," said Craig Philip, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Ingram Marine Group, an inland marine transportation companies, announced the following executive leadership promotions. Dale Heller, former Vice President and Chief Information Officer, has been promoted to Senior Vice President and CIO. Allen Oldham, previously Vice President of Finance and Business Development, and Controller, has been named Senior Vice President and Controller. Jim Lanier, who has served as Assistant Vice President of Internal Audit, Ingram Industries Inc., has been promoted to Vice President, Finance, Support Operations and Analysis. "As we continue to grow Ingram Marine Group, we are continuing to build on an already established leadership team by realigning these executives with increasing responsibilities," said Craig Philip, President and Chief Executive Officer.