Nordea, DnB, ING Arrange $3 billion Facility for BW Group

Jumbo loans have officially returned with the announcement by BW Group that it has executed a 5-year $3 billion facility with a consortium of 11 banks, which committed a total sum of $5 billion against BW Group’s $3 billion requirement. Nordea, DnB and ING acted as bookrunners of the facility, and they were joined as mandat­ed lead arrangers and underwriters by Svenska Handelsbanken, Swedbank, HSH Nordbank, Danske Bank, Fortis Singapore, OCBC, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.

THE WORLDWIDE/BERGESEN DEAL

By Urs M Dür

This deal overall should not have come as a big surprise to anyone. It’s likely-hood was printed here and elsewhere since Worldwide’s Helmut Sohmen controlled accounts (Tauro) announced, by Oslo Boers rules, control of over 10% of the company last year. The rumour that the Bergesen and Sundt families were interested in getting out of the business was prevalent. Bergesen is going through a large transition at the executive level. There are operational synergies between the two entities and both entities have top staff.. .amongst the best The combined company will be one of the most diversified large shipping companies in the world. This match, on the surface of our preliminary analysis, made sense, we explain below.

How? Many query why would one sell a great revenue generator for the cash alone? (“The Chicken for the sake of the eggs.” as one put it or “the bathwater for the baby” said another”.) Many say that the price achieved, while better than the general historical performance of the shares, was not unprecedented. We take a look at some of these elements below.

A Norwegian national icon is today no longer Norwegian. ‘Tis a big event. As one New York based pundit told this writer, “it reminds me of when the Japanese bought Rockefeller Center”.

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