JR Shipping Seals Refinancing Deal
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Monday, January 8, 2018
Dutch shipowner and manager JR Shipping has succeeded in involving a credit investment fund in London in the refinancing of JR Fleet Fund CV – a shipping fund which has financed eleven container feeders belonging to the shipping company’s fleet.
Under the auspices of the shipping company, the British financier has taken over more than EURO 126 million (USD151 million) loan/debt from German HSH Nordbank. On 5 December 2017, the bank’s Executive Board gave its approval; the closing took place on 15 December.
JR Fleet Fund CV is the result of a previous successful restructuring operation which was realised in 2012 in close collaboration between HSH Nordbank, the shipping company and its CV-partners.
By combining the eleven vessels, in which the German bank had been involved as their financier from the start, into one single fund in 2012 the prospects for safely piloting the vessels through the crisis increased. A market recovery was required to make this solution sustainable, but this did not happen.
In 2016, unfortunately, the container feeder market even experienced its fourth dip. Although, for a short time now, the market has been improving, JR Fleet Fund CV has not yet sufficiently benefitted from it.
JR Shipping and the credit investment fund are committed to maintaining a long-term partnership which will not only reinforce the foundation beneath the shipping company, but also increase the possibility for banks to structure refinancing solutions for their vessels. The partners’ financial skills and maritime industry expertise complement each other in this context.