German Ship Financier Target Asian Private Equity
Germany’s second biggest financier of ships Norddeutsche Landesbank (NordLB) is tapping Asian investors and private-equity funds to invest in its shipping loans.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Singapore unit of the state-owned lender last year started creating packages of 10 to 20 vessels for private-equity firms to invest in, Thomas Buerkle, board member responsible for risk management at the bank, said.
Bloomberg citing Thomas Buerkle, NordLB's board member, as saying Asian investors believe there are good opportunities amid the shipping slump. In Asia, they are not talking about a shipping crisis, he said. He pointed out that Asian investors put their money in ships, as they believe the slump offers good opportunities.
Pulling together “sustainable packages” of vessels enables the bank and the external investor to make use of cross-collateralization when the collateral for one shipping loan is used as collateral for another.
NordLB provided EUR17.3bn (USD20.5bn) in loans to 1,582 vessels at the end of September 2014, seeking to eliminate bad loans despite a slump in the industry.
