Reading the press release from U.S. Shipping Partners (“USS”) announcing an amendment to the credit agreement, we came away with the impression of a simple waiver and amendment to get the company through the next year, although it does contain a caveat that the summary “does not purport to be complete and is subject to and qualified in its entirety by reference to the waiver and fourth amendment filed herewith,” which you are urged to read in its entirety. We did and were surprised.
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It is always a pleasure to hear from someone with a fresh and confident outlook, and such was the happy occasion when the Norwegian American Chamber of Commerce presented Rune Bjerke the Group Chief Executive of DnB NOR at an early evening, late summer event in New York. Mr. Bjerke joined the Bank leaving the successful Hafslund ASA where he was CEO. And as he noted the switch to banking left some of his friends perplexed it was the sort of challenge that appealed even though his start date approximately coincided with the start of the Sub Prime crisis.
While the shipping industry enjoys a remarkable period of prosperity, in a tiny corner of the world chaos appears to reign for the moment.
The small chaotic corner we refer to is the U.S. Flag community, where teams of lawyers are as important as a strong balance sheet, and the right shipyard, political and labor relationships are as fundamental to a CEO’s skill set as shipping market expertise.