Hsh Nordbank News

Tanker owner/operator Ardmore Shipping Corporation on Wednesday announced the planned departure of its current chief financial officer Paul Tivnan and appointment of new CFO Bart Kelleher, effective September 28, 2022.Anthony Gurnee, Ardmore's chief executive officer, said, Kelleher and Tivnan will overlap and work together from September 1 to "achieve an orderly and well-planned transition".Kelleher brings to the role more than 25 years of progressive experience in the maritime, finance, energy and industrials sectors, having most recently served as chief executive officer of Chembulk Tankers. He previously served as both Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the firm, and prior to that, was the chief operating officer of Principal Maritime Management.

Newport Shipping said Ingmar Loges has joined the company as Managing Director, Germany, supportSing U.K.-based drydocking services firm in group financial strategy and marketing strategy for the German market.Loges comes with more than 30 years of industry experience in domestic and international marketplaces. His previous roles included Global Head of Ship and Offshore Finance for the last 15 years in financial institutions DVB BANK SE Amsterdam, HSH Nordbank AG Hamburg, UniCredit…

Singapore-based First Ship Lease Trust (FSL Trust) has appointed Markus Wenker as chief financial officer, to replace Alan Mitchell, who is retiring.Wenker will take over the role and responsibilities May 4, following a handover process.Wenker was most recently head of ship finance at Hellenic Bank from 2016. Previously, he held a number of roles at HSH Nordbank from 2002 to 2016.FSL Trust's current fleet of 16 vessels comprises containerships and a variety of tankers. Of these, 10 vessels are leased to international shipping companies on long-term bareboat charters.

Chembulk Tankers announced on Wednseday that Bart B. Kelleher has taken over as Chief Executive Officer for David Ellis, who has resigned for personal reasons. Ellis will be available to the company through January 31, 2020.Kelleher has held senior executive roles within Chembulk since joining the company in early 2016, initially as Chief Strategy Officer and then Chief Financial Officer in early 2019. Prior to joining Chembulk, Kelleher was the Chief Operating Officer for Principal Maritime Management and held roles in investment banking…

Deutsche Bank has found a buyer for the bulk of its bad ship loans as it seeks to draw a line under sour investments in the sector and to start a fresh push in transport lending, people close to the matter said.Germany's flagship lender has agreed to sell a non-performing ship loan portfolio with a notional value of $1 billion to investors Oak Hill Advisors and Varde, one of the sources said.Deutsche Bank and Oak Hill declined to comment, while Varde was not immediately available…

Germany's HSH Nordbank, once the world's biggest ship financier, aims to buy shipping loans from other banks and make new investments in the industry as it emerges from years of turmoil, a top bank official said.The bank's regional government owners are selling the lender to buyout groups Cerberus Capital Management and J.C. Flowers, with investors GoldenTree, Centaurus Capital and Austrian bank BAWAG also taking stakes."HSH, at the end of this process of privatization, will for the first time since 2008 be restored.

Germany's HSH Nordbank, formerly the world's largest ship financier, is being sold to private equity firms as it emerges from crippling writedowns and state bailouts amid the deepest sector slump on record.   The bank's state owners on Wednesday said that they sealed the sale to a consortium of buyout groups Cerberus and J.C. Flowers, with investors Goldentree, Centaurus and Austrian bank BAWAG also taking stakes.   The purchase price for 94.9 percent of HSH is roughly 1 billion euros ($1.22 billion), they said.   The buyers had been since mid-January in exclusive talks with HSH's owners, the German regional states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg as well as regional savings banks.   Reporting by Jan Schwartz and Arno Schuetze

HSH Nordbank will provide the investor BlackRock with a long-term loan amounting to about € 31 million to refinance the Brotorp wind farm in southern Sweden. The farm with 14 Vestas 126 type wind turbines and a total capacity of 46.2 megawatts (MW) has been in operation since December 2015. With US$ 6.29 trillion in assets under management (as of 31/12/2017), BlackRock is the world's largest independent asset manager. HSH Nordbank has previously already completed numerous transactions in the photovoltaics business with this investor. “Implementation of this Brotorp project gave us the opportunity to support our long-standing client and once again to demonstrate our capability in Sweden, which is an important market to us.

Dutch shipowner and manager JR Shipping has succeeded in involving a credit investment fund in London in the refinancing of JR Fleet Fund CV – a shipping fund which has financed eleven container feeders belonging to the shipping company’s fleet. Under the auspices of the shipping company, the British financier has taken over more than EURO 126 million (USD151 million) loan/debt from German HSH Nordbank. On 5 December 2017, the bank’s Executive Board gave its approval; the closing took place on 15 December. JR Fleet Fund CV is the result of a previous successful restructuring operation which was realised in 2012 in close collaboration between HSH Nordbank, the shipping company and its CV-partners.

HSH Nordbank AG's  subsidiary Godan GmbH, the controlling unitholder of First Ship Lease Trust (FSL Trust), is looking to divest all its shares in FSL Holdings, the sponsor of the trust, reported Business Times. The report quoted FSL Trust as saying that Godan GMBH is in discussion with shortlisted strategic investors for a potential sale of all of its shares in FSL Holdings. FSL Holdings also owns all shares of the trustee-manager of FSL Trust through FSL Asset Management Pte Ltd. A sale of FSL Holdings would thus result in a change in the beneficial ownership of the sponsor and the trustee-manager of FSL Trust. The sale by Godan would result in the change of the beneficial ownership of the sponsor and the trustee-manager.

German shipping group Rickmers, which filed for insolvency in June, said on Thursday its ship management unit had the all-clear to continue business after it was bought by Bremen-based Zeaborn Group and owner Bertram Rickmers. The company said in a statement that a consortium consisting of Zeaborn and Bertram Rickmers bought the division, which has its main sites in Hamburg, Singapore and Cyprus after they won a bidding process. "It has only taken a few months after preliminary self-administration of the assets of Rickmers Holding AG was ordered to find a solution for continuing the business…

Capital Product Partners  entered into a firm offer letter for a senior secured term loan facility of up to $460.0 million with HSH Nordbank AG and ING Bank as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners and BNP Paribas and National Bank of Greece S.A. as arrangers. The lenders also include Alpha Bank S.A., Piraeus Bank S.A. and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (Publ). The closing of the credit facility is subject to finalization of the long form loan documentation. "We intend to use the net proceeds of the loans under the New Facility, together with available cash of approximately $120.6 million, to refinance, four out of five of our existing credit facilities amounting to $580.6 million in total," says a statement from the company.

HSH syndicate, comprising HSH Nordbank and DBS Bank, has approved the sale of the remaining nine of 14 vessels of Singapore-based Rickmers Trust Management for some $54 million to Navios Partners Containers and Navios Partners Containers Finance. The total consideration will also include an amount to support settlement of operational cash deficits to closing, said Rickmers Trust Management in an update on the winding up of Rickmers Maritime. The sales of these nine vessels are expected to be completed in parts from July 12, 2017, Rickmers said. The sale of the first five containerships was completed in late May. The vessels are secured to the HSH syndicate and as the total proceeds from the sale fall below the loan outstanding due and payable…

German shipping group Rickmers said it had filed for insolvency on Thursday, a day after it announced that its restructuring plan had failed to win approval of bondholder HSH Nordbank.   "The insolvency application was filed this morning, and the court has confirmed that it has received it," the company said in an e-mailed statement, adding that it could not yet predict further developments.   Rickmers had proposed a revamp plan under which the equity stake of owner Bertram Rickmers was to be reduced to 24.9 percent, while bondholders, HSH Nordbank and potentially another bank would hold 75.1 percent.   But it said late on Wednesday that HSH had "highly surprisingly" rejected that plan, forcing it to file for insolvency.   Reporting by Jan Schwartz

Board of HSH Nordbank AG has surprisingly denied approval of the term sheet regarding the financial restructuring of the Rickmers Group, says a press release from the group. Rickmers Holding AG strives for restructuring in self-administration on the basis of continuation of the business and vessel operations, the release said. On 19 April 2017, Rickmers Holding AG reached an understanding with, inter alios, HSH Nordbank AG on a term sheet regarding the restructuring of material financial liabilities of the Rickmers Group that was subject to corporate approval of HSH Nordbank AG and contingent on the restructuring of the bond 2013/2018 issued by Rickmers Holding AG.

German shipping group Rickmers said it would file for insolvency after bondholder HSH Nordbank rejected its restructuring plan a day ahead of a last-ditch bondholders' meeting. Rickmers had proposed a revamp plan under which the equity stake of owner Bertram Rickmers was to be reduced to 24.9 percent, while bondholders, HSH Nordbank and potentially another bank would hold 75.1 percent. But HSH "highly surprisingly" rejected that plan, Rickmers said in a statement on Wednesday. "According to the assessment of the management board and supervisory board of Rickmers Holding AG the positive going concern prognosis of Rickmers Holding AG does therefore no longer apply," it said, adding its management board would file for insolvency without undue delay.

Only 17.4 percent of Rickmers' bondholders took part in a vote on the company's restructuring plan on Wednesday, fewer than the minimum required. Under the proposed revamp plan, the equity stake of owner Bertram Rickmers would be reduced to 24.9 percent from 100 percent.

Company struggled with debt in wake of shipping downturn. Debt includes over $270 mln in secured loans. Rickmers Maritime, a Singapore-listed trust that operates container ships, said it would be wound up as it has been unable to reach an agreement with its lenders to restructure debt or raise new equity. Struggling in the wake of a global shipping downturn, Rickmers joins other Singapore-listed companies from the offshore and marine sectors that have been grappling with debt in the last year. Singapore banks, which were caught off-guard by the collapse of oilfield services company Swiber Holdings last year, have taken a hit as the firms restructure their loans.

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.

Singapore-based Rickmers Trust Management (RTM), a trustee-manager of Rickmers Maritime,  is selling off a new ship from its fleet to ensure the company stays afloat. This means an impairment loss in the fourth quarter 2016. Rickmers has entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the sale of Kaethe C. Rickmers, a Panamax containership. The vessel is securing senior loan facilities extended by HSH Nordbank AG, Singapore Branch and DBS Bank (the HSH Syndicate) to the trust (the HSH Facility). The net proceeds from the sale will be applied towards the payment of operating costs of the secured vessels under the HSH Facility and partial prepayment of the HSH Facility. The Trustee-Manager has also entered into a deed of consent with the HSH Syndicate to obtain their consent for the sale.

German banks are still struggling with bad loans from exposure to the shipping industry, reports DW. The banks are struggling to recoup tens of billions of dollars of loans as a global shipping industry slump hits them hard. A report published on Sunday by German public broadcaster ARD has suggested that the northern German states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein may have to offer up to 20 billion euros ($21.4 billion) in credit guarantees to prop up banks with bad investments in container shipping. "Many competitors here have hardly any chance against the new mega-shipping companies in Asia," reporter Heinz-Roger Dohms wrote. That's bad news for the banks that underwrite German shipping companies - and German banks maintain around $100 billion in shipping loans…

German shipping finance provider is optimistic about the prospects of finding a potential buyer for the bank, which will begin a privatization process this year with a deadline in February 2018, says a report in Reuters. "Despite the difficult market environment, we have very good prospects of selling the bank," the report quoted Oliver Gatzke as telling Boersen Zeitung newspaper. HSH Nordbank met potential buyers in London in November ahead of the German lender's planned privatisation this year, people close to the matter told Reuters. HSH's owners - the northern German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg jointly hold 85 percent - have to privatise the bank by the end of February 2018 and have mandated Citi to organise the process, due to start in early 2017.

The global shipping industry will hit a credit crunch if proposed new bank capital rules are implemented in a sector already weighed down by toxic debt, bankers involved say. The Basel Committee of banking supervisors from nearly 30 countries met in Chile last month in an effort to complete the new rules for lenders in the world's major financial centres. It is now trying to pin down the details. While the rules do not target shipping specifically, some of the biggest rises in…