Deutsche Bank Ag News

The collapsing maritime shipping industry is stoking another European banking headache, this time in economic powerhouse Germany, says a report in WSJ. While the Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, reported earnings, warned that its losses on shipping loans could be as high as EUR600 million ($641 million) this year after nearly doubling last year to EUR559 million. Stephan Engels, Commerzbank’s chief financial officer (CFO) admitted that there was little immediate prospect of recovery. “Our view for 2017 is just as critical as it was for 2016, as far as shipping overall is concerned,” he said. “We still have -particularly for container ships – more new vessels coming on to the market than are being scrapped.

United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) announced  the recent conclusion of a series of transactions that resulted in the issuance by a U.S. based trust of $162 million of Enhanced Maritime Trust Certificates (EMTC). The EMTCs were issued in an offering pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) and Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, and the transaction marks UASC’s debut financing in the debt capital markets. The EMTCs received a (private) Investment Grade rating by Fitch Ratings Ltd and Kroll Bond Rating Agency and the proceeds were ultimately used to finance the debt portion of two 2012-built 13…

The HCI Group and two other investors have taken over a total of thirteen ships from the loan portfolio of HSH Nordbank. The HCI Group structured the portfolio acquisition and is investing a substantial amount itself. The portfolio consists of thirteen feeder ships of between 800 and 1,800 TEU, with an average age of nearly ten years. Deutsche Bank AG will be refinancing part of the portfolio. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price for the vessels. In its role as general manager, the HCI Group has outsourced technical ship management to three providers within the north-German maritime cluster. Commercial ship management will be coordinated by the HCI Group and carried out by experienced partners.

Singapore-based dry bulk operator Pioneer Marine posted a loss of $80.6m for the fourth quarter, and a yearly loss of $96.9m for 2015. Excluding the effect of the impairment loss, net loss as adjusted would have been $22.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2015 or $0.87 adjusted loss per share basic and diluted and $6.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2015 or $0.21 adjusted loss per share basic and diluted. Pankaj Khanna, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “2015 proved to be a challenging year for the drybulk industry with excess supply overwhelming anaemic demand growth, particularly in the fourth quarter. Iron ore and coal imports into China suffered the most as iron ore imports grew by just 2% compared to 2014 and coal imports declined by almost 30%.

Overseas Shipholding Group Inc investors have reached $16.25 million in settlements with the executives, underwriters and an auditor of the tanker company in a lawsuit related to its 2012 bankruptcy and tax problems. Company directors and officers, including former Chief Executive Morten Arntzen and former Chief Financial Officer Myles Itkin, agreed to pay $10.5 million, papers filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday showed. Underwriters including Citigroup Inc, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc will pay $4 million, while accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP will pay $1.75 million. "We're think its an extraordinary result in an extremely complex case," David Rosenfeld, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said on Friday.

A flotation of a minority stake could value the world's fourth-largest shipping group German-Chilean Hapag-Lloyd AG at more than 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) and could take place as early as autumn. Hapag-Lloyd AG has already mandated investment banks Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Inc. and Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. to advise on the initial public offering (IPO), as per various media reports. The reports indicate Hapag-Lloyd expediting efforts to float a minority stake on the Frankfurt stock exchange as early as this fall. The net proceeds from the IPO could be used to cover the company’s pretty extensive debt of USD 3.65 billion. However, the plans are yet to be confirmed by Hapag-Lloyd.

Keppel DC REIT Management Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation Ltd has received overwhelming demand from institutional and retail investors for its initial public offering of 261,138,000 Units. The Offering comprised an international placement of 207,375,000 Units1 to investors, including institutional and other investors in Singapore (the "Placement Tranche"), and an offering of 53,763,000 Units to the public in Singapore (the "Public Offer"). Due to strong demand from institutional investors during the book-building process, the Units were priced at the top end of the offering price range at S$0.93 per Unit.

The executive committee of Euronav NV announced that it has signed a new $340 million senior secured credit facility led by ING Bank NV acting as sole Bookrunner and together with Citibank NA, Danish Ship Finance A/S, DnB Bank ASA and KBC Bank NV acting as Mandated Lead Arrangers whilst Belfius Bank NV, BNP Paribas Fortis NV, Deutsche bank AG and ITF International Transport Finance Suisse AG are acting as Lead Arrangers. ING is also the facility agent. The credit facility comprises of (i) a $192 million term loan facility and (ii) up to $148 million non-amortising revolving credit facility. The facility will be available as from today for the purpose of (i) refinancing four Suezmax vessels: the Cap Felix (2008 – 158…

Star Bulk Carriers Corp., a global shipping company focusing on the transportation of dry bulk cargos, has announced that on September 19, 2014 it has taken delivery of M/V Leviathan, a 182,000 dwt Capesize built by Japan Marine United (JMU). The vessel is a sistership to M/V Peloreus already delivered to the company and is the second of six similar vessels ordered at JMU with expected deliveries until the third quarter of 2015. The JMU Capesize vessels are all built with modern…

Chevron Corp has hired an investment bank to identify potential buyers of its 54,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Kapolei on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, a company official said. Deutsche Bank AG was retained to sell the plant, according to another person familiar with the sale, who was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly. Deustsche Bank declined to comment. "After much consideration, Chevron's downstream and chemical leadership has decided to engage an investment banking firm to identify potential parties interested in the purchase of our assets in Hawaii. No decision has been made at this time other than to determine the level of interest of potential buyers," Chevron spokesman Braden Reddall said on Friday. The Hawaiian facility is among the company's smallest refineries.

CVR Energy Inc is bound by agreements to pay Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Deutsche Bank AG more than $36 million in fees and expenses stemming from billionaire investor Carl Icahn's 2012 tender offer for the oil refiner, a New York state judge has ruled. The banks had each sued CVR in 2012, claiming CVR had hired them to provide financial advice on Icahn's ultimately successful tender offer for its stock, and agreed to the fees based on the size of the transaction. In May 2012, Icahn won control of CVR with an 80 percent stake after a majority of shareholders accepted his $30 per share tender offer, which valued the Sugar Land, Texas-based company at about $2.6 billion.

Athens, Greece-headquartered Star Bulk Carriers says it has taken delivery of 'M/V Peloreus' a 182,000 dwt Capesize built by Japan Marine United (“JMU”) and the first of six similar vessels ordered at JMU, with expected deliveries until the 3rd quarter of 2015. The new ship will be employed in the spot market in order to take advantage of its modern design and fuel efficient specifications. Following the delivery of M/V Peloreus and inclusive of the two Kamsarmax vessels to be acquired from Heron Ventures Ltd., Star Bulk will own thirty three dry bulk vessels on the water, consisting of eleven Capesize, four Post‐Panamax, six Kamsarmax, two Ultramax and ten Supramax vessels with average age of approximately 7.3 years.

EURONAV announces that it has raised $125 million in total in gross cash proceeds through a private placement of 10,556,808 new shares to institutional investors selected through an accelerated book build offering. Following strong demand, Euronav decided to upsize the initial offering from $100 million to $125 million. All of the newly issued shares were placed at a price of €8.70 per share (or $11.84 at the current EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.3610), at a 3% discount to the previous day’s closing price. The new shares represent 8.05% of the new total number of outstanding shares.

EURONAV has entered into an agreement for the purchase of four modern Japanese built VLCC vessels for an aggregate purchase price of $342 million. The vessels are on average three years old. This acquisition fits into the company’s strategy to further strengthen its position as the leading listed crude tanker company. The transaction allows EURONAV to expand its existing fleet with an ‘en bloc’ acquisition of four of the best vessels that can be found in today’s second hand market. This will not only rejuvenate the company’s fleet, but it will also complement the company’s existing fleet and further position EURONAV as the key pure play consolidator in the crude tanker industry.

Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank AG, has declared it will not finance a controversial coal port expansion in Australia near the Great Barrier Reef, responding to calls from environmental groups and tourism operators. HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, also signalled on Friday it would be unlikely to finance the project. Deutsche Bank's stand marks a win for those opposed to $26 billion worth of coal projects that plan to use the Abbot Point port, already facing delays due to weak coal prices. But one company involved said the bank's position made no difference. "This doesn't impact our proposed projects in any way," Indian firm GVK Hancock spokesman Josh Euler said.

Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:IRDM) announced that it has signed the definitive Coface Facility Agreement to finance its next-generation satellite constellation, Iridium NEXT. The syndicate of nine banks is led by Deutsche Bank AG, Banco Santander SA, Société Générale, Natixis and Mediobanca International S.A., and includes BNP Paribas, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. and Unicredit Bank Austria AG. They will provide up to $1.8b of financing to Iridium for the design and manufacture of Iridium NEXT satellites. The funding under the Facility is subject to customary closing conditions, which are expected to be met shortly. The credit facility consists of two pro rata tranches. One tranche of up to $1.537b will bear a fixed interest rate of 4.96% per annum.

United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) closed a $1.3 biillion (USD) multi-tranche syndicated loan facility for the partial financing of seven 14,000 TEU container ships and five 18,000 TEU container ships. The facility is part of a larger $1.7 billion debt financing related to UASC’s announced $2.3 billion capital expenditure program for 17 newbuilding container vessels including, in total, 11 14,000 TEU and six 18,000 TEU vessels. Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch (DB) acted as Global Coordinator to UASC for the entire $1.7 billion debt financing. The 17 vessels include 10 vessels for which shipbuilding contracts were signed in August 2013 with the remaining seven vessels being option vessels. The process of option vessels is still continuing.

OW Bunker, a reseller and physical distributor of marine fuel, has signed a $700 million revolving credit facility, refinancing its current $450 million facility. The new facility consisting of two tranches, a 364-day and a three-year multicurrency revolving credit facility, was more than 100% oversubscribed by the in total 13 international banks and financial institutions in a syndicate led by ING Bank N.V. OW Bunker sees the over-subscription and the up to three-year commitment as a strong sign of confidence in its business model, including a strong balance sheet consisting primarily of relatively liquid current assets, with 70-75% of accounts receivables typically insured, and a liquid inventory of fuel and gas oil.

From HQ in Athens, Greece, DryShips Inc. announce that through its majority owned subsidiary Ocean Rig, and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Drillships Financing Holding Inc. (“DFHI”), and Drillships Projects Inc., have entered into an Amendment and Restatement Agreement to the Credit Agreement dated as of July 12, 2013. “We are pleased with the successful closing of this important transaction which extends Ocean Rig’s debt maturities. We effectively refinanced the short-term tranche of the Term Loan B Facility with a fungible add-on to the long-term tranche.

DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS) announced that it has reached agreement on waiver terms with Deutsche Bank AG, lender and Mandated Lead Arranger on $1.125b facility. This facility covers drillships hull numbers 1865 and 1866 currently under construction at Samsung Heavy Industries. This agreement is subject to customary documentation provisions. George Economou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are pleased to have reached this agreement on a very important credit facility for DryShips. We are delivering the waivers as promised and we hope to conclude discussions with the rest of the lenders in the near future”. (www.dryships.com)

Star Bulk Carriers Corp., a global shipping company focusing on the transportation of dry bulk cargos, announced that it has taken delivery of M/V Star Vega, a Post-Panamax bulk carrier of approximately 98,000 deadweight tons carrying capacity. The vessel has commenced a time charter with the sellers of the vessel for a period between 30 months to 34 months, at a gross daily hire rate of $15,000 minus a 1.25% address commission on gross revenues. The vessel is expected to generate approximately $13.4 million in charter revenue over the minimum contracted period.

Star Bulk Carriers Corp., a global shipping company focusing on the transportation of dry bulk cargos, has announced that it has taken delivery of M/V Star Sirius a Post - Panamax bulk carrier of approximately 98,000 deadweight tons carrying capacity. The Star Sirius is the second of the two modern Post-Panamax bulk carriers to be delivered to the company, pursuant to the relevant binding agreements announced on January 29, 2014. The vessel has commenced a time charter with the sellers of the vessel, Glocal Maritime Ltd., for a period between 28-32 months, at a gross daily hire rate of $15,000 less a 1.25% address commission on gross revenues. The vessel is expected to generate approximately $12.4 million in charter revenues over the minimum contracted period.

DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced the pricing of its previously announced public offering of convertible senior notes. The offering size was increased from $300m to $400m. The sale of the convertible notes is expected to close on November 25, 2009, subject to customary closing conditions. The convertible notes, which are being issued at a price equal to 100% of their face value, will have an interest rate of 5%. The convertible notes will be senior unsecured obligations of the company. The initial conversion price for the convertible notes will be $7.19 per share.