Structured Finance News

Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) announced that, following the election of George Paleokrassas as the firm’s senior partner, partner Alexia Hatzimichalis will be taking over as Athens office head.Hatzimichalis, who joined the firm in 2001 and made partner in 2014, also heads the assets and structured finance team in Athens. Qualified in England and Wales, originally as a barrister and then as a solicitor, Hatzimichalis advises on a wide range of ship finance matters for clients including Greek and international banks, other financial institutions and ship-owning groups and U.S.-listed companies.

London-based multinational law firm Linklaters has advised Green Investment Group (GIG) on the acquisition of a 40% stake in Iberdrola’s Scottish Power Renewables’ 714MW East Anglia One offshore wind farm.Once commissioned in 2020, it will be one of the world’s largest wind farms, said a note from the British law firm."This transaction is the first partnership between GIG and Iberdrola’s Scottish Power Renewables subsidiary in the UK and brings the total capacity of UK offshore wind supported by GIG to over 5.7GW across 14 projects. This is the equivalent to almost 50% of the total UK offshore wind farm capacity in operations or under construction…

Minerva Bunkering, formerly Aegean Marine Bunkering Network now a fully-owned subsidiary of Mercuria Energy Group, appointed Tyler Baron as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).Baron will be based in Geneva, and will oversee Minerva’s global business operations across Europe, the Americas and Asia, said a press note from the physical supplier of marine fuels.“Given Tyler’s history with and dedication to the company, as well as his breadth of experience in financial markets and capital allocation, he is the ideal candidate to lead Minerva Bunkering,” said Magid Shenouda, Global Head of Trading at Mercuria.“Through his leadership the new Minerva is positioned for success through a customer centric global platform and dedicated team of employees.

Global trade tensions have captured headlines in recent months, as the imposition of a series of tariffs and counter-tariffs by various global trade counterparts has raised questions about the possibility of a trade war. Such development could potentially have an impact on global trade flows, and, consequently, the companies which facilitate international movement of goods.Though the situation is still developing and the final impact is uncertain, Gregory Draco, the Chief U.S. Economist at Oxford, predicted in July that the tariffs would create an 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent drag on U.S. GDP.

Singapore yard Keppel Corporation is considering a sale of jack-up rigs to Norwegian offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling, reports The Business Times. The world’s biggest builder of oil rigs is seeking to offload six jack-up rigs for up to US$960 million to the Oslo-listed drilling firm headed by Tor Olav Trøim, said the report. BT also reported that Keppel Capital has already hooked up with structured finance provider Clifford Capital to potentially extend a sale-and-lease-back arrangement for at least one jack-up contracted by Grupo R. The global offshore oil drilling sector is slowly trying to emerge from an industry downturn since the oil price crash.

Euronav NV (NYSE: EURN) entered into a five-year sale and leaseback agreement for four VLCC vessels  with investment vehicles advised by Wafra Capital Partners Inc., a private equity partnership. The four VLCCs are the Nautilus (2006), Navarin (2007), Neptun (2007) and Nucleus (2007). The transaction assumes a net en-bloc purchase price of $186 million. The transaction produced a capital gain of about $37 million and the transaction should be booked as an operating lease under IFRS. As per Euronav dividend policy, this capital gain will not be eligible for dividend distribution. After repayment of the existing debt, the transaction generated in excess of $100 million free cash. The vessels were delivered to their new owners, the investment vehicles advised by Wafra Capital Partners Inc.

Topaz Energy and Marine, an offshore support vessel company, announced a new $550 million facility. The facility is arranged over three tranches. The first is a conventional and Islamic senior secured, term loan of $350 million over seven years which will be used principally to repay existing senior debt. The second is a senior secured, conventional and Islamic Revolving Credit Facility of $100 million over five years and the third tranche is a senior unsecured conventional and Islamic term loan of $100 million, both of which will be used to fund growth capex. The new facility significantly lowers Topaz’s finance costs. The facility will also extend the maturity of Topaz’s debt profile over the next seven years from its previous profile of four years.

Milbank represented Meridian Spirit ApS, as issuer, in a $195 million bond refinancing for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker vessel, the Meridian Spirit. Meridian Spirit ApS is a special purpose company owned by Teekay LNG Partners LP and Marubeni Corporation. Moody’s rated the 17-year private placement Baa1 based on the Meridian Spirit’s charter with Total’s Norwegian subsidiary, which is ongoing up to 2030. Proceeds from the issuance will refinance a portion of the bridge debt that the two sponsors utilized when they acquired the six-vessel Maersk LNG fleet in February 2012. The Meridian Spirit was built by Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries and has a storage capacity of 165,500 cubic meters of LNG.

New York City – April 29, 2011 – Holland & Knight is pleased to announce that Brad L. Berman has joined the firm as Partner in the firm's New York City office. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Berman served as Executive Director of the Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR), the world's second largest ship registry and 60+ year old corporate registry, where he oversaw all aspects of the Liberian corporate and shipping program, including corporate and other entity formation, and ship registration and mortgaging.

On-Net Surveillance Systems, Inc. (OnSSI) announced that Yoav Millet has joined the organization as COO/CFO. Millet will employ his talents and experience in growth and change management to enhance OnSSI’s financial, operational and business strategies as it continues to assert itself as the industry leader in surveillance technology. Prior to joining OnSSI, Millet held positions serving as COO at IncentOne; Managing Partner at M-CAM; Senior Managing Director of alseT-IP Structured Finance LLC; and Managing Director for Juno Investments, LLC. Millet also previously co-led the investment banking activities of Clali & Associates Financial Management (LCF Edmond de Rothschild Group) as well as management positions within various institutional investment companies.

“Liquidity has come back to some extent,” said Oliver Ebner, Senior Manager, Project and Structured Finance for the National Bank of Abu Dhabi. Ebner is one of a panel of speakers lined up to address a special session on financing the industry in the global economic slowdown at Middle East Money & Ships, the region’s premier networking event for senior executives from the maritime and finance sectors. The conference from 7-8 October 2009 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Dubai, will also assess the continued appetite for investment in shipping, the likely pattern for recovery, where the money will come from as well as providing a realistic assessment of the current order book.

Keppel FELS Limited is on track to deliver Gold Star, the first of two DSS 38 deepwater rigs to Brazilian operator, Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás (QGOG) later this year. Progressing on time and within budget, Gold Star will be the first DSS 38 rig to enter the market and support Petrobras's exploration and production activities. Gold Star was named today by Lady Sponsor, Mrs Fiona Steane, spouse of Mr Christopher Steane, Global Head for Structured Finance of the rig’s financiers, ING Bank.

Eurofin to act as its consultant. clients and identifying ship financing opportunities for the bank. Dr. clients. stronger than it has ever been. good banks such as KfW IPEX-Bank have to be selective. finance, and short-term trade finance. scale. refinancing at market rates at all times.

Shipping Bond Fund Ltd. A member of the Centre Group and TuftonOceanic have completed what is believed to be the first collateralized debt obligation (CDO) comprised entirely of high-yield shipping bonds. The $50 million CDO, Shipping Bond Fund Ltd., is unique due to its size and the fact that it selected assets solely from a select group of shipping industry bonds with high asset coverage ratios. Centre looks for opportunities to work with experienced partners to structure and provide capacity to CDOs and other asset-backed structured finance transactions through the application of non-traditional insurance and reinsurance products.

Shipowners are known for having distinct differences of opinion, but the one thing that all agree on is the importance of having access to capital. In an industry in which assets are generally big-ticket items and operating margins can be thin, access to proper financing serves the dual purposes of fleet growing the generation of healthy operating returns. Most shipowners would also agree that financing for maritime assets generally isn't easy to find. There are various reasons for this. One reason is that few lenders focus exclusively on marine finance and a result most lending institutions are not familiar enough with marine assets to feel comfortable financing them.