A Fish Story from Russia

In a triumph of tenacity, 1995 saw the successful initial financing for Joint Venture Kaliningrad Group 1, Ltd. (“JVKG”), a deal Marine Money first saw almost three years earlier when Joel Peck, the investment banker with American Marine Advisors (then with Lehman Brothers), spoke enthusiastically about the concept. The deal brings together the U.S. and Russian partners in JVKG, a fishing company registered in the Marshall Islands, with shipyards in Germany, the U.S. and Mexico which are renovating JVKG’s vessels, with manufacturers in Norway and the U.S. which are supplying equipment for the vessels, and with finance provided by U.S., German and Norwegian investors.

JVKG closed the extremely complex, multinational $28 million financing on June 30, 1995, to fund the renovations of the first four of its ten factory processor fishing vessels. Senior financing was provided by John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, Boston, and Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau, Frankfurt. Junior financing was provided by John Hancock, Eksportfinans, Oslo, and U.S. suppliers. John Hancock also has an equity stake in JVKG and in its management company, Ocean Resource Management, L.P. of Seattle (“ORM”).

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