Berenberg plots ship finance push

Hamburg’s Berenberg Bank plans to boost its marine lending business this year with support from institutional investors.

Its head of international shipping, Andreas Schultheis, told delegates at yesterday’s Marine Money conference in Hamburg that the bank was going to launch a debt fund for asset financing among investors who are looking for stable cashflows such as savings banks, pension funds and family offices.

The funds will be used for ship mortgage loans “with conservative loan to value ratios and covenants” arranged and managed by Berenberg, Schultheis said.

The private bank, which traces its roots back to the year 1590, is a small but growing player in the German ship finance scene. It does not report the size of its marine loan book, which industry sources estimate amounts to a few hundred million dollars maximum today.

Schultheis said the debt fund volume could reach up to EUR1 billion. “It will allow us to grow our business without stretching our balance sheet too much,” Schultheis explained.

The fund would only be used for newly issued loans. “There will be no unloading of risks from past transactions,” Schultheis said, adding that the debt fund investors would have first preferred lender status.

source:www.ihsmaritime360.com