J.F. Lehman Sells Ship Repair Unit for $325 Million

Great instances of opportunity exist, its just locating them. Even in the sleepy backwater maritime industry in the US.

J.F. Lehman & Company completed the sale this week of Atlantic Marine Holding Company to a subsidiary of BAE Systems, Inc. for an estimated $325 million. J.P. Morgan provided M&A advisory services for Lehman and Blank Rome the legal advice.

That’s the news this week….here is what we said about Lehman’s original acquisition of the yard – at a price of $190 million in the fall of 2006.
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No Hype. We Delivered!

Our Chairman’s promotions are sheer artistry and we constantly marvel at these masterful gems. Of course, there are issues with punctuation but why let that get in the way of a great pitch. The amazing thing is that despite his protests otherwise, he really does get it. Our problem is that he is rubbing off on us and we are moving from analytical and objective to the dark side where it’s all about the love as both Matt and he are fond of saying. In the case of this year’s Marine Money week, there is no doubt we got it right. The numbers speak for themselves. This year we went out on a limb denoting the theme as the Comeback or Confidence Returns to Ship Finance. Whether or not that was the case and we believe it is, 1,078 registered guest wanted to hear the answer. This was a new record surpassing 2008’s 1042 guests. Uncertainty + optimism trump a boom.

We relish the awards afternoon. We devote a great deal of energy, although far less than the dealmakers themselves, in choosing the transactions from the many submissions we receive and it is a pleasure to see the winners bask in the recognition they rightfully deserve. It is also educational as the latest structures and ideas are on display for all to see and take advantage of as appropriate. Nigel Thomas and Dan Rodgers of Watson, Farlay & Williams did a masterful job moderating the session which included presentations by Sheldon Goldman, Efthymios Bouloutas of Marfin, Ronny Bjornadal of Nordea, Sean Durkin of NSF, Gerrit Parker of Citi and Craig Fuehrer of Deutsche Bank.
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Capital Link

Following on the heels of CMA, today was the 4th Annual Capital Link Shipping Forum in New York. As always it was well attended with a full schedule of presentations and panels. The most intriguing for us was the bankers’ panel which was moderated by George Cambanis of Deloite Hadjipavlou Sofianos & Cambanis and included Robin Das of HSH Nordbank, Gust Biesbroeck of Fortis Bank Nederland and Brett Esber of Blank Rome. The good news was that panelists all agreed that bank lending has picked up this year. Mr. Biesbroeck talked of pockets of liquidity, noting in particular the increase in Asian lending to locals. The common characteristics of the loans were the involvement of strong credits with whom the bankers had long-standing relationships. Echoing the same idea, but humorously, Mr. Das affirmed there was a bifurcated market with the banks willing to lend to those who don’t need the money. The niche owner is being left behind.
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Full House in Athens – Part 2

By Kevin Oates

…in the longer term shipping should correct but quality, transparency and financial strength are key to survival.

Despite the tough market and the general lack of ship finance, Marine Money’s Greek Ship Finance Forum again filled the seats in Athens.  With 310 delegates and speakers and some 40 more for the TEN Ltd lunch, there was plenty gossip and exchange of views at the 11th Annual conference held on the 8th of October 2009.

The event had started with a speaker’s dinner the previous night co-hosted by Navios Maritime Holdings and was to end in the early hours of the following morning at the Capital Party co-hosted by Capital Product Partners LP at a well-known Athens nightclub.  Even if the market is tough, we still know how to enjoy ourselves.

Back at the conference, our day began with Guy Verberne, a leading economist at Fortis Bank (Nederland) telling us that the economic recovery has come and it may well be sustainable.  China, he says, has plenty foreign reserves to prolong it’s stimulus package for as long as it needs and he sees no meaningful cutbacks from the stimulus packages of western governments, at least through 2010.  A risk is a double dip in 2011 if we get too bogged down in debt.
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Pooling Talents

First International, Blank Rome, ICAP Shipping and Morpheus Capital Advisors have joined together and formed The Maritime Restructuring Alliance, a maritime financial crisis management and financial restructuring group created to provide hands-on, experienced, executive management of distressed companies and assets through a global network of financial and operating affiliates. With its wide range of affiliates the alliance will be positioned to provide seamless financial, investment banking and legal advice to the industry in order to help it deal with today’s issues as well as to take advantage of the opportunities presented.

Based upon our recent reporting, there would seem to be worlds of opportunity. On the other hand, we wonder how welcome a third party would be at the banker/owner table unless of course the negotiations become adversarial.