Diana Containerships’ Sale-leaseback with APL

On Monday, Diana Containerships Inc. announced that they had purchased the M/V APL Sardonyx and the M/V APL Spinel, both with a capacity of approximately 4,750 TEUs, for $30 million each. The vessels were built in 1995 and 1996 respectively at Samsung Heavy Industries. Delivery of the vessels is expected to take place this quarter.

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Back in the Saddle

After what we perceived to be a long absence, we were pleased to see the return of Justin Yagerman at his new desk in Deutsche Bank. Mr. Yagerman leads the transportation and shipping team that includes Robert Salmon and Michael Webber. Coverage includes trucking, airfreight, logistics, railroads and, of course shipping.

On Wednesday, Mr. Yagerman initiated coverage of the sector. His main takeaway on shipping was: “near-term fundamentals challenging across the board, but high quality names should continue to outperform.”

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Debutante

Last week D/S Norden (“Norden”) held its first Capital Markets Day in New York at the prestigious Four Seasons Hotel. The event was hosted by Mr. Ivar Hansson Myklebust, EVP and CFO, and Mr. Martin Badsted, VP & Head of Corporate Secretariat. As this was the premier event in N.Y., the crowd was relatively small but high powered and included, among others, key New York shipping analysts Natasha Boyden of Cantor, Doug Mavrinac of Jefferies, Glenn Muller from JP Morgan and Michael Webber from Wachovia. Others in the audience included investors as well as Peter Shaerf of AMA.

The company allocated three hours for the presentation and Q&A session and we are struggling how to distill the in-depth presentation and do it justice. Objectivity is also an issue as we are ardent admirers of the company’s rather unique market approach and strategy. With that said, here are our key takeaways and our favorite slides from their presentation.

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