Last week Platou held its annual shipping conference in New York and not surprisingly it was upbeat. Erik Helberg set the stage with his presentation on why it’s time to invest in shipping:

·       Ships are cheap – inflation adjusted price is at the lowest level in 25 years

·       Traditional bank lending is drying up

5.16.2013 d’Amico exercises options on two MR eco newbuilds, sells one to Hudson Partners

d’Amico International Shipping has exercised its option for two MR eco newbuildings at Hyundai Mipo for a consideration of less than $30 million each. The vessels will be delivered in H2 2015. One of the newbuilding contracts was then sold to Hudson Partners, a private equity fund based in Stamford, CT, for $150,000 in addition to the purchase price. The vessel will be commercially managed by d’Amico.

DVB’s Dagfinn Lunde is not heading towards retirement quietly, as evidenced by the bank’s performance in the first quarter. The headline number was consolidated net income, before IAS 39 and taxes, of EUR 44.7 million, which was up 20.5% over last year’s comparable result.

Looking to raise NOK 800 million, Farstad Shipping ASA went into the market with a two tranche offering of five and seven year senior unsecured bonds. As the orders came in, it was clear that investor interest was focused on the five year issue and the joint lead managers, DNB Markets, Nordea Markets and Swedbank First Securities facing strong demand from across the Nordic countries, upsized the deal to NOK 1 billion.

While details are skimpy, the size of the latest ABS offerings from Cronos Holding Company Ltd and SeaCo Ltd are not. Last week, Cronos successfully completed an offering of $300 million of Series 2013-1 Asset Backed Notes. Rated A(sf) by S&P, the notes were priced with a fixed coupon of 3.08% and yield 3.10%, which is the lowest pricing achieved by the company’s ABS platform to date.

In the first quarter of 2013, 81 business days, Marine Money tracked 117 deals in the shipping industry, with $22.4 billion changing hands. Sponsors and delegates of our Marine Money Week conference were responsible for two thirds of this total  This quarter’s figures are comparable to the fourth quarter of 2012, each of which is greater than the entire first half of 2012. Deal activity is picking up. Bank loans and corporate bonds continue to dominate as a percentage of total value, though their share is declining.

Yesterday, in its inimitable style, Scorpio Tankers Inc. announced its latest follow-on offering, the sale of 36,144,578 shares of common stock priced at $8.30/share, a discount of 5.5% from the prior day closing price of $8.78. The offering had negligible impact on the share price which closed the day at $8.82/share up $0.04.  The gross proceeds of $300 million will be used for vessel acquisitions, working capital and other general corporate purposes.

We had a peek this week at a preliminary teaser for a 5-year high yield senior unsecured Eurobond offering for Rickmers Holding & Cie. KG. The company is looking to raise € 200 - € 250 million. According to one of the participants, there has been a good amount of interest from buy and hold accounts in Europe so far with over € 100 million circled in anticipation of a month-end closing. Details for the moment are sparse, but hopefully will be known soon.

Even though it’s May and holiday season in Oslo, there is apparently a small window of opportunity for Seabird Exploration Plc to sell its $120 million of 5-year senior secured bonds in the Norwegian bond market. The offering scheduled for next week is being offered with a fixed coupon ranging from 8.25% to 9.00%. Proceeds of the offering will be used to refinance the existing $87.8 million outstanding under the 2011 bond issue (SBX03) and for general corporate purposes.