A Noble Breed

Last week, our sister publication Freshly Minted reported on Maersk’s successful EUR 750 million (USD 1.3 billion) five-year bond. This was the shipping conglomerate’s first bond issuance, following a recent equity offering of USD 1.7 billion. In Asia, commodity trading house Noble Group has likewise found tremendous success in raising funds, suggesting that investors and bankers are getting warmed up to investing cash again. Continue Reading

Award Affirmed

As we prepared to make the formal presentation of Dealmaker of the Year to Angeliki Frangou and her Navios team at Marine Money Week, we learned that she concluded yet another innovative deal and one that is certainly representative of the times in which we find ourselves. In a sense, she married an opportunity to the solution of the larger financial issue facing our industry.

Last Monday, Navios announced the acquisition of four newbuilding Capesize vessels currently under construction at a South Korean shipyard. Three of the vessels were purchased from companies controlled by Commerzbank AG. The seller of the 4th was not disclosed.

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Managing Expectations

Over the weekend, TBS announced it had secured waivers of certain covenants with respect to its outstanding credit facilities with its syndicate of lenders led by Bank of America, its syndicate of lenders led by The Royal Bank of Scotland and its syndicate of lenders led by DVB Group Merchant Bank, as well as its loan agreements with AIG Commercial Equipment, Commerzbank AG, Berenberg Bank and Credit Suisse (the ” Financing Facilities “).

The company initiated discussions with its lenders to obtain waivers as a result of the current market conditions with a specific focus on the market value of vessels. The Financing Facilities were modified to provide a waiver through December 31, 2009 of loan-to-value and other financial covenants, provided that the company satisfies new covenants, including minimum end of month cash balances of not less than $40.0 million and a minimum ratio of EBITDA to interest expense. In addition, TBS prepaid all the principal installments that would have been due under the term loan facility this year. This reduced the total non-construction related debt to $$247.5 million.

The company is now in position to report its earnings with a clean opinion from its auditors.