While we believe that Bjørn Aaserod of Cambridge Fund Management is a creative financial engineer, in our opinion his ability to run Navigator Gas has been significantly diminished by his failure to provide basic corporate governance. Mr. Aaserod’s precarious financial situation has prevented him from registering the notes and has caused several judgment liens to be filed against his present and former organizations. We believe that these factors, taken in their totality, have damaged the company by creating an extremely unstable and distracting environment which will make chartering the Navigator ships more difficult. In an industry well known for backbiting and gossip, we are afraid that the combination of Mr. Aaserod’s financial feats and exploits has made him less desirable to major charterers.
While we do not believe everything we read in the trade press, in the words of JP Morgan, every transaction should be assessed on the basis of the character, collateral and credit of its principals. We think these criteria have been damaged. As a result, we believe that equity holders, bondholders and underwriter CS First Boston should encourage a shipowning company with deep pockets and a serious commitment to the gas sector to purchase Mr. Aaserod’s equity in Navigator Gas.
This is only an excerpt of Chasing Bjørn
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