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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13,100 TEU Ships Financed!

Last week, United Arab Shipping Company (“UASC”) announced that it has inked a KWD 25 million (USD 86.6 million) senior unsecured term bilateral loan from Kuwait’s second largest bank, Gulf Bank. This is the one of a series of facilities sought by UASC that will be invested in its USD 1.5 billion container vessel newbuilding program. Earlier in February, the boxship owner and operator had similarly found success with Middle Eastern lenders in a multi-currency USD 275 million club deal. Appointed mandated lead arranger and coordinating bank Qatar National Bank roped in participants Burgan Bank, Commercial Bank of Qatar and Doha Bank while BNP Paribas was the structuring bank. This facility will be used to finance three out of the nine 13,100 TEU vessels ordered at Samsung Heavy Industries in June 2008.

USAC currently operates 42 container vessels and will expand its capacity to 300,000 TEUs when it takes delivery of the nine 13,100 TEU ships. Suffering from a combination of depressed demand and tonnage oversupply, mega ships are often seen to be inflexible and economically infeasible to operate during the bad times and it remains challenging to secure funds for these vessels. But with its cash rich backers from the governments of Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, UASC benefits from its pedigree background and the latest loans demonstrate the strong support regional banks are providing to their shipping clients. Continue Reading

You’re Never Too Old to Try Something New

Looking to diversify its funding sources, J. Lauritzen A/S (“JL”), a Danish shipowner founded in 1884, offered bonds in the Norwegian market for the first time. The offering of NOK 700 million of senior unsecured notes was well received being fully sold in 1 1/2 hours, somewhat aided by a presubscription consortium. According to the company, the issue was placed with a broad range of investors. Not surprisingly, the purchasers, from a geographic perspective, were mainly from Norway and Denmark, reflecting the fact that the issuer is a private company and not well known outside the Nordic countries. As expected, the issue was largely bought by institutions although there was retail interest too.
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Mr. Molaris Returns with Alma – A Mixed Fleet and Fixed Dividend Option

Last week, Stamatis Molaris staged his return to the public markets by joining forces with Hans Mende, the President of American Metals & Coal International, and Mass Capital Investments, a private equity firm affiliated with Fortis Bank Nederland, with the filing for an IPO of their new venture, Alma Maritime Limited. Avoiding the historic trend of a pure play in order to provide diversification, Alma will be a mixed fleet with mixed employment including spot, short-term, medium term and long-term charters. The strategy is to take advantage of attractive opportunities presented by current low vessel prices in both the wet and dry sectors with the goal of maximizing shareholder returns through the shipping cycle.
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Blowout!

As a seasoned issuer, Teekay Corporation wasted no in pricing what was expected to be $300 million of senior unsecured notes due in 2020. On Friday, not only did they announce highly competitive pricing, but also that the offering had been upsized by 50% to $450 million.

With a coupon of 8.5%, the deal was priced at 99.181% to yield 8.625% or 492 bps over like term Treasuries. Details of the transaction are shown in the Guts of the Deal below.

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Swap to Extend

On Tuesday, Teekay Corporation announced a cash tender offer for all of its outstanding 8.875% Senior Notes due 2011. As of December 31, 2009, $176.6 million aggregate principal amount of these notes were outstanding. The total consideration for the tender offer will be $1,078 per $1,000 principal amount, consisting of a tender offer premium of $60 and a consent payment of $18 for early tenders. The offer, managed by J.P. Morgan, is scheduled to expire February 9th.
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Bank Debt Returns to Normalcy?

One of the major concerns on the minds of many would be the pile of toxic collateralized mortgage paper that remains on banks’ balance sheets and this will continue to restrict the banks’ ability to extend new credit. Likewise, shipping banks face the same tricky task of valuing the shipping assets on their books based on current market prices. Basel II requires banks to set aside more capital to riskier assets whenever the security cover reduces, and this could potentially limit capital for lending. The process of writing down book values has yet taken place and moving forward, it is absolutely crucial that bank losses on shipping remain limited or the industry could risk losing a number of lenders. There has already been a material contraction in ship lending capacity among major shipping banks.

2009 has been a busy year for the ship financiers, not so much for lending but more in terms of restructuring and workouts. Lending terms as one would expect have become more stringent in 2009 and not only has the advance rate been lowered to 50-60%, banks prefer shorter tenors between 3 and 5 years. This is in stark contrast to the 10 to 12 year tenors banks were offering shipowners during the shipping boom just a couple of years back. Bankers call this a return to basics. Continue Reading

Step Up Asian Banks

As we fill in our deal tables week after week, we note that anecdotal evidence points towards local banks increasing their financial support to their domestic clients. In Thailand, Thoresen Thai Agencies (“Thoresen Thai”) has secured a USD 200 million three year term loan from a syndication of mainly Thai banks – Kasikornbank, Krung Thai Bank, Export-Import Bank of Thailand (“EXIM Thailand”) and Mizuho Bank, Bangkok Branch. We gathered that the pricing is set at 250 bps above LIBOR and the facility will be used to expand the company’s business in transportation, energy and infrastructure.

Thoresen Thai’s subsidiary Hermelin Shipping is currently in the process of acquiring Unique Mining Services (“UMS”) which is expected to be completed by mid December. The credit line will certainly come in handy if Thoresen Thai is able to make a full acquisition of UMS, estimated to cost at least THB 4.5 billion (USD 135.6 million). Established in 1994 and listed in the Market for Alternative Investment of Thailand since 2004, UMS is involved in the coal trading business through importing coal to the various industrial customers in Thailand. Continue Reading

Seadrill Taps Bond Market

Last week, Seadrill successfully completed the offering for a five year $500 million senior unsecured convertible bond. Although the books were oversubscribed beyond the original $600 million offering, Seadrill opted to cap the sale at $500 million.

The bond was priced at par to yield 4.875% and will mature in September 2014. The conversion price is $25.18, a 35% premium to the VWAP of the shares on the date of pricing. Given the run-up of the share price (94% YTD), the bankers balanced the two by pricing the offering at the high end of the yield while providing a lower conversion premium.
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Watson, Farley & Williams LLP Advises in High Profile KOGAS Project Financing

The Singapore office of Watson, Farley & Williams LLP (“WFW”) advised on the high profile Korea Gas Corporation (“KOGAS”) refinancing for three 1999 built LNG carriers.  The 138,200 cbm built LNG carrier “Hanjin Muscat” is on bareboat charter to Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd, the 138,100 cbm built LNG carrier “SK Summit” is on bareboat charter to SK Shipping Co., Ltd. and the 135,000 cbm built LNG carrier “Hyundai Technopia” is on bareboat charter to Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., Ltd.  All three LNG carriers are operating under long term contracts of affreightment with KOGAS. Continue Reading