Foreign Banks News

Israeli shipping company Zim is considering an initial public offering on a foreign exchange, Israeli news website Globes reported on Monday.A Zim spokesman said the company was not commenting.Two options being examined are to hold the offering in London or New York, according to Globes, a financial news website, which did not cite its sources.Zim, with a workforce of about 4,200 and which had turnover in 2019 of $3.3 billion, has hired three foreign banks to help with the IPO…

Companies, lenders, and their auditors worldwide need vessel appraisals that can be relied upon when put into legal documents. As the offshore energy support markets awaken, this is more important now, than ever.While a great deal of shipping finance is done at a 10,000' level, with bond deals and equity swaps, the value of the assets found on ground level are still very important. There are taxation issues, insured value, public reporting, and allocation of purchase price, where the value of individual vessels is important.

Egypt's government denied in a statement on Thursday that the Suez Canal Authority was seeking a 300 million euro loan from Gulf lenders. Three senior banking sources that did not wish to be named had told Reuters last week that the authority requested a loan from Gulf banks in order to purchase two dredgers. "The Suez Canal has not borrowed any money from any foreign banks, and everything that had been mentioned about this issue is nothing but baseless rumours," the government statement said. The sources last week provided no further details on the loan and the Canal Authority could not be immediately reached for comment. The Suez Canal…

The reluctance of foreign banks to deal with Iran could complicate any compensation payments resulting from the collision last week of an Iranian oil tanker and a Chinese cargo ship, sources say. The tanker Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tonnes of highly flammable condensate oil, collided with the Chinese dry cargo vessel CF Crystal on Saturday in the East China Sea, causing an oil spill and a blaze that is still raging four days later. Liability has yet to be established but lawyers…

Greece is considered to be the world’s first ship-owning country in terms of tonnage. The Greeks are known to control 17.7% of world fleet and gaining share except in crude tankers. Even recession in the dry bulk market has not had much effect on the Greek-owned fleet with the fleet size touching 5,226 vessels last year with a total DWT of 334 million. For debt-laden Greece, shipping – a key element of Greek economic activity since ancient times – is considered a knight in shining armor at this crucial juncture. Most Greek shipping companies are family owned businesses which have been in shipping for many decades, even over a hundred years.

Indonesia Port Corporations (IPC) or PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II, Indonesia’s state-owned port operator is to build 22 ports in the country in the next five years for an anticipated cost of around $3.5 billion. “We are targeting to build 22 ports from Belawan to Sorong within five years,” Pelindo II chief executive Richard Joost Lino said. The Indonesian port projects are to be financed by cash and loans and once completed each will have a capacity of 2.5 million TEUs. As on date, the company has cash reserves of around Rp19.5 trillion from bond issuance, bank loans and internal cash flows. This project is a continuation of Indonesia’s previous decision to seek $7 billion in funding for its ‘Maritime Highway’ initiative.

Port authorities in the West African states must act together to explore the full potential of the region's maritime industry to enable them compete in the global economy, Richard Anamoo, Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), has said. According to him, there is the need to enhance trade and investment opportunities for ports infrastructure development considering the growth in traffic and increase in imports. Anamoo said that the management of the ports has been fraught with many challenges including terrorism, pirating, the challenge of trade facilitation, among other and that it will take partnerships to be able to stand the test of time.

Indian shipbuilders buoyed by a renewed political will, a plan and funding to help the industry recover. It has been a long wait for the 28 shipbuilders in India to finally catch sight of  opportunities to sail back into the better financial waters. The newly elected Narendra Modi’s BJP’s party brought in a strong stable government, the first in nearly 30 years, and has given an unprecedented, massive boost in promoting Indian shipping in its recent Union Budget. Most industry stakeholders consider this to be a very positive and unexpected turn of events, as the previous succession of governments that have been largely unsupportive of all matters maritime, despite the industry crying itself hoarse for a level playing field to enable it to face cut-throat overseas competition.

Standard Chartered Plc said its $175 million provision to cover its exposure to suspected commodities fraud in China was the result of a conservative view of possible costs but didn't believe there were widespread problems in the sector. Chinese authorities launched an investigation in May into whether metals trading firm Decheng Mining and related companies used fake warehouse receipts at Qingdao Port to obtain multiple loans secured against a single cargo of metal. "We believe that in the provisioning we have taken we have taken a very conservative approach. Our exposure in the warehouses around Qingdao is around $250 million in total," StanChart Chief Executive Peter Sands told reporters on a call on Wednesday after the London-based bank announced first-half results.

Citigroup Inc has about $280 million in loans tied to commodities in two Chinese ports which are at the center of a probe into possible fraud, a senior executive said on Friday, becoming the first U.S. bank to disclose its potential exposure. The total is a large portion of the bank's roughly $400 million worth of so-called repo commodity financing deals in China. Short for repurchasing agreements, repo deals give customers access to short-term credit in exchange for goods. "At this stage we believe the activities are isolated and just specific to those very specific locations," Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach said in a conference call with analysts.

CITIC Resources Holdings Ltd said on Tuesday that metal it owns at Qingdao port may be affected by a probe into suspected fraud, the latest firm caught up in a scandal that has raised broader worries about the risks of metal financing in China. The probe at the Chinese port, where a third-party firm is suspected of using single cargoes of metal multiple times to obtain financing, has also shaken markets amid fears the problems could extend to other ports and force a crackdown on using metal as collateral for finance. The investigation into the status of aluminium and copper products stored at the world's seventh-biggest port may hit the group, CITIC Resources said, sending its shares down by more than 8 percent to their lowest since May 7.

Sustaining the ongoing boatbuilding boom can involve the lawful use of foreign finance streams. James Kearns takes a closer look at the practice. The citizenship requirements for vessels engaged in the U.S. coastwise trade are generally well-known. Such a vessel needs to be built in the United States; it must have a U.S. citizen crew or operator; and its ownership must meet specified U.S. citizenship requirements, depending on the form of legal entity owning the vessel (corporation, limited liability company, partnership, etc.).

Iran’s pledge to restrict nuclear work in return for loosened economic sanctions may have a limited effect on crude prices, report Bloomberg, citing analysts who regarded a 2.7 percent slump in Brent as a knee-jerk reaction. The six-month agreement, which offers Iran about $7 billion in relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, leaves in place banking and financial measures that have hampered the OPEC member’s crude exports. The six-month agreement, which offers Iran about $7 billion in relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, leaves in place banking and financial measures that have hampered the OPEC member’s crude exports.

The second International Complex Exhibition of Shipbuilding, Water Resources Use and Exploration, “The Ocean 2012,” in Moscow November 29 through December 1,  will  address all aspects of marine activities at one venue, to combine the interests of science and manufacture, but also draw the attention of International business community to the latest developments in different spheres of exploration. The exhibition is held under the patronage of Maritime Collequim of the Government of the Russian Federation and Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. The exhibition seeks to support the extension of the innovative and industrial cooperation with foreign countries.

IHC Merwede has recently increased its underwriting capacity by more than 50 percent to nearly $2.2 billion. Of this amount, over $1.3 billion has been committed. The financial agreement has been forged between IHC Merwede and an international banking consortium made up of five banks, with the aim of facilitating international growth. The five banks which form the consortium all have large international networks. Three of the five – ABN AMRO, ING and Rabobank – were chosen for their proximity to IHC Merwede’s Netherlands-based business.

Arpeni Pratama Ocean Lines said it plans to invest $130 million to buy 24 vessels to strengthen its fleet this year. The company had additional equity amounting to $33.1m from a rights issue last year, but the fund will not be enough to cover the expansion, Suhendra said. According to sources, a number of local and foreign banks have offered loans for the company to buy the ships. The types of vessels to be bought include tug boats, barges, floating cranes and large ships for coal transport. (Source: Antara/Asia Pulse)

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission reportedly fined Daewoo Corp about $1.2 million last month for an unfair intra-group foreign currency transaction, in which Daewoo allegedly sold $192 million below market rates to Daewoo Heavy Industries through the local branches of two foreign banks. Daewoo Group, currently struggling under debts of $47.3 billion, was fined a total of $11.2 million, including the $1.2 million for the currency transaction.