Marine Link
Thursday, March 28, 2024
SUBSCRIBE

Bad Bank News

20 Sep 2016

RBS Says Starts Winding Down Shipping Business

The Royal Bank of Scotland has begun winding down its global shipping finance business, it said on Tuesday, ending efforts to sell it amid a worsening downturn across the freight industry. Chief Executive Ross McEwan is battling to complete a restructuring, which includes asset sales and thousands of job cuts, amid a low-interest rate environment that makes finding profitable new business tough. "In line with the bank's strategy to create a simpler, stronger, and more sustainable bank, better aligned to the needs of our customers in the UK and Western Europe, we are commencing the wind down of our shipping business," an RBS spokesperson said.

11 Aug 2016

RBS Looks to Sell Turkish Loans in Bid to Exit Shipping

Royal Bank of Scotland has put its portfolio of Turkish shipping loans up for sale, in the latest move by the state-backed bank to exit this troubled sector and cut overall losses through asset sales, two sources told Reuters. RBS, which has not made an annual profit since 2007, is restructuring under chief executive Ross McEwan and is looking to offload its entire shipping loans business to shore up its capital and avoid more losses on distressed debt. The sources, who declined to be identified, told Reuters the bank was looking to sell between $200 million to $500 million worth of Turkish-related shipping loans. RBS, which reported 2.05 billion pounds ($2.66 billion) of losses for the first half of 2016, declined to comment.

22 May 2015

HSH Nordbank Looking to Split Off Bad Shipping Loans

HSH Nordbank AG, the world’s second-largest financier of ships, plans to split off a "bad bank" for non-performing shipping loans as part of a plan to create a sustainable business model, reports Reuters. The city of Hamburg was willing to inject billions of euros in fresh equity to stabilize the bank, which is 85 percent owned by the regional states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. According to Germany's Manager Magazin, HSH's bad shipping assets would be wound down under the plan, allowing a fresh start for the remaining bank with a focus on corporate lending, including new loans to the shipping industry. However, the bank spokesman Mirko Wollrab declined to comment on the report.

21 May 2015

HSH Bank to Split Off Bad Shipping Loans

German lender HSH Nordbank could split off a "bad bank" for non-performing shipping loans as part of a plan to create a sustainable business model, according to a person familiar with the matter. Germany's Manager Magazin reported earlier on Thursday that the city of Hamburg was willing to inject billions of euros in fresh equity to stabilise the bank, which is 85 percent owned by the regional states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. HSH's bad shipping assets would be wound down under the plan, allowing a fresh start for the remaining bank with a focus on corporate lending, including new loans to the shipping industry, the magazine said. At the same time, an existing guarantee by the regional states of the lender's losses linked to toxic assets would be scrapped, it added.

18 May 2014

State Won't Pay For Nuclear Decommissioning - Germany

Germany's economy minister has joined Angela Merkel in rejecting talk that utilities might hand over responsibility for decommissioning Germany's nuclear power plants to a new public entity, as the projected costs of decommissioning rise. "It should not be tax payers who pay for the clean-up of atomic waste but rather those who made money for decades through running nuclear power stations,"Sigmar Gabriel told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag in an interview published on Sunday. Two sources told Reuters last weekend that utilities were in talks with the government about setting up a "bad bank" for nuclear plants, in response to Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to close them all by 2022 after the Fukushima disaster.

11 May 2014

German Utilities Want Public Body To Shut Nuclear Plants

German utilities are in talks with the government about handing over responsibility for decommissioning the country's nuclear power plants to a public foundation, two sources familiar with the proposals said on Sunday. This so-called 'bad bank' for nuclear energy would take over Germany's nuclear plants, which the government decided should be all closed by 2022 following the Fukushima disaster in Japan three years ago. "Talks are being held with the German government," a person familiar with the plans told Reuters, adding the talks were at a very early stage. "Nothing has been decided yet," the source said, following a report in German magazine Der Spiegel earlier on Sunday.