Jonathan Gould News

German state-backed lender NordLB now expects to report a loss in 2016 after non-performing loans in shipping, where it is one of the world's top lenders, helped push it into the red in the first quarter. The results at NordLB, which previously said it expected an earnings decline this year but did not point to a loss, bode ill for German peers HSH, Commerzbank, DVB and KFW, who have also been forced to take writedowns and boost capital buffers against shipping loan portfolios turning bad. "We are expecting NORDLB to close the current year with a negative result," Chief Executive Gunter Dunkel said in a statement on Wednesday. That would be its first full year loss since 2009.

Germany's shipping lenders are preparing for sustained pain as weakening trade and an over-supply of ships show no signs of easing, industry officials said. Europe's biggest economy was one of the world's main centres of global ship finance before the 2008 credit crisis and the five most involved banks still have around 80 billion euros ($88 billion) of loans outstanding to the sector, a difficult exposure to manage given tighter scrutiny from bank regulators. "The structural imbalance from the over-supply of transport capacity and low demand will continue and we don't expect any encouraging upswing as a result," shipping bank DVB Chief Executive Ralf Bedranowsky said on Thursday.

German bank NordLB and two partners have formed a joint venture that will specialise in advising on the restructuring of non-performing ship loans, the state-backed lender said on Monday. The shipping industry has been stuck in a multi-year slump brought about by global economic weakness and overcapacity, weighing heavily on lenders with exposure to the sector, including NordLB, HSH, Commerzbank and state development bank KFW. The venture, Crystal Ocean Advisors, will offer restructuring services for troubled ship financing portfolios but will not take ownership of the assets. NordLB, shipper Offen Group and alternative assets specialist Caplantic will each own a third of the business, NordLB said.

A stricken cargo ship drifting on its side off the French Atlantic coast was being towed to the Spanish port of Bilbao on Monday, local officials said. The 164-metre Modern Express, which was transporting 3,600 tonnes of wood along with construction machinery from Gabon to France, had been drifting towards the coast since its crew was evacuated by helicopter last week. The extreme incline of the ship as well as the difficult sea conditions had so far prevented teams from boarding and it would have hit the French shore on Monday or Tuesday if the salvage effort had failed. However, four specialists boarded the ship on Monday as the weather improved and hooked a cable up to the vessel before being winched up into a helicopter.

* Caution remains over U.S. SYDNEY/LONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Global insurance firms are circling Iran for business opportunities following the lifting of sanctions - and the first test of their appetite could come in March when some Iranian companies seek new cover. Insurers, the reinsurers that share their risk and the brokers that forge deals are exploring ways to tap a market worth $7.4 billion in premiums after a nuclear accord between world powers and Tehran led to the removal of restrictions on financial dealings with Iran this month. Allianz, Zurich Insurance, Hannover Re and RSA, for example, said in recent days that they would evaluate potential opportunities in the country.

Reinsurance rates in the marine sector continued to fall at the start of the year, in spite of the huge cost of explosions at China's Tianjin port last August, reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter said on Thursday. Rising competition to offer reinsurance and slower activity in China, were two factors depressing rates, it said. The blasts at Tianjin caused insured losses of up to $3.3 billion, Guy Carpenter has estimated, while reinsurer Swiss Re has called it the largest man-made insurance loss in Asia. The explosions killed more than 170 people. "Tianjin has had little or no impact on marine pricing," Chris Klein, head of EMEA strategy management at Guy Carpenter, told a news conference.

German wind turbine maker Nordex is mulling paying a dividend for the first time since listing on the stock exchange as part of efforts to create a long-term investor base, its chief financial officer told a German newspaper. "We will think about it but I cannot already today promise a dividend," Bernard Schaeferbarthold told Boersen-Zeitung newspaper in an interview published on Saturday. Nordex, which is part-owned by Germany's richest woman Susanne Klatten, wants a stable base of long-term investors, Schaeferbarthold said. "Dividends could help us in that regard," he said. Nordex has not paid a dividend since it floated on the stock exchange in 2001.

Edison, the Italian power company controlled by France's EDF, is set to enter private talks with E.On to buy the German group's Italian unit E.On Italia, three sources close to the matter said on Friday. If talks are successful, Edison and E.On Italia would be merged together, the sources told Reuters. Edison and E.On declined to comment. The sources also said Italian regional utility A2A had presented a non-binding offer for E.On's hydropower assets and gas clients in Italy, while GDF Suez was interested in E.On's hydropower, solar and wind assets as well as its gas clients. Burdened by 31.1 billion euros in net debt, a collapse in wholesale power prices and the demise of its traditional generation business…