Dmitry Pismenny, head of the Baltic Exchange’s escrow service, explains how there is a rising
demand for escrow accounts to help mitigate both S&P and chartering risks.

The syndicated loan market during 2020, according to Dealogic, as published earlier in Freshly Minted.

Last week, Euronav Luxembourg S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Euronav NV announced it had successfully placed $200 million of its senior unsecured bonds.M

Earlier this month, Textainer Group Holdings Limited priced its public offering of 6,000,000 depositary shares, each representing a 1/1,000th interest in a share of its 6.250% Series B Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preference Shares, par value $0.01 per share and $25,000 liquidation preference per share (equivalent to $25.00 per depositary share), for a public offering price of $150,000,000.

2020 was a challenging year for the developers of LNG export projects as the economic downturn stemming from Covid-19 led many project developers to postpone investment decisions. It is now hoped and expected that a number of the export projects, postponed through 2020, will soon reach final investment decision (FID), and that this will lead to a commensurate increase in demand for newbuilding LNG carriers (LNGCs) dedicated to these projects.

Last year we wrote the introduction to the credit issue just a short 11 weeks after lockdowns began, with the future uncertain at best and unknown at worst. But even in that short period, “Before-Covid” seemed a distant memory. Now we are in the midst of the pandemic and, while we remain hopeful, the Delta variant still holds us captive. A more certain future is dependent on converting the unvaccinated to the vaccinated

There were two recent transactions that struck us as somewhat unusual. In the first, KNOT Offshore Partners LP announced that it had entered into an at-the-market issuance sales agreement with B. Riley Securities under which the company could sell common units from time to time having an aggregate price of up to $100 million.

Last week, Global Ship Lease, Inc. (“GSL”) announced today that “S&P Global Ratings (“S&P”) has raised the company’s long-term issuer credit rating to BB- from B+, with a stable outlook, attributing the upgrade to a number of factors including the company’s larger scale, increased diversification, enhanced contract coverage, expectation that favorable charter rate conditions will continue, and forecast of solid EBITDA performance and positive free cash flow generation.

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Private Credit is reshaping the ship finance landscape. In this paper, Matt McCleery highlights the opportunities (and challenges) for borrowers, lenders and Limited Partners.

It was back on August 23, 2005, that the shareholders of International Shipping Enterprises, Inc., a SPAC, overwhelmingly approved the acquisition of Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. which transaction closed two days later.

Last year’s Marine Money Deal of the Year winner, Wallenius Wilhelmsen ASA (“WalWil”), returned last week to the Norwegian bond market where it had achieved that success. It was a far different time.