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At the outset we must confess to being an accounting nerd. Having spent the greatest portion of our career in lending, we developed a strong interest in accounting due to its critical importance in assessing financial statements and therefore creditworthiness.

In the last installment in the series, Jodi Manning and Cody Goins of Cool Effect discuss the pricing of carbon offsets.

Earlier this month, Dealogic released its Marine Finance Rankings Syndicated Loans – Full Year 2021 report and it held few surprises. Yet again, Marine Syndicated Loans (including shipping and offshore) declined both in terms of volume and number of deals. But this was not surprising as it was the first full year of results reported impacted by the pandemic.

The maritime industry continues to make progress towards achieving its goal of net zero emissions. Upon the introduction of the regulations, owners immediately began to fine-tune operations while retrofitting existing vessels with fuel saving equipment. Some, with greater access to capital, ordered dual-fuel newbuildings, which operate on LNG, a transition fuel, while the truly green fuel of the future is being commercially developed.

Capital Ship Management Corp. (‘Capital’) and Heidmar Inc announced last week the formation of a joint venture combining the long-standing commercial strength of the two organizations in the tanker industry.

Last week, Hurtigruten AS successfully placed its three-year offering of €50 million of unsecured green bonds with a borrowing limit of €75 million. Rated CCC+/Caa1 on stable and negative outlooks, respectively, the bonds carried a coupon of 11% and were sold at an OID of 98%. The books were covered by indications of interest at guidance.

Last week, Cool Company Ltd. (“CoolCo”) successfully raised gross proceeds of $275 million through a private placement of 27.5 million new shares at an offering price of $10/share.

The recent reports in the trade press of the potential sale of Scorpio Tankers’ 12 LR1s to Hafnia struck a chord. We remember well Scorpio’s IPO built upon the premise of building a fleet of eco-friendly product tankers in anticipation of the IMO regulations respecting emissions.

Already a major shareholder, Kenon Holdings Ltd, a company controlled by Idan Ofer, has expanded its relationship with ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (“ZIM”) by agreeing to charter to them three 7,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel container ships.

Teekay Corporation is returning to its roots as a tanker company as the sale of its daughter company, Teekay LNG Partners LP, to Stonepeak is expected to close this week leaving Teekay Tankers as its last daughter.

Due to a delay in receiving the data, last week’s article dissecting Dealogic’s Quarterly Rankings Syndicated Loans – Full Year 2021 omitted the list of the Top 20 Shipping Loans for the year.

Marine Money is pleased to announce that it has teamed-up with the High Tide Foundation to produce a series of webinars dedicated to supporting the decarbonization of the maritime industry. The webinars will be held monthly throughout 2022 and are free to attend.

In our second installment in the series, Jodi Manning and Cody Goins of Cool Effect continue their discussion of carbon offsets.

It was worth the wait. Despite attracting significant interest from investors back in November, Gram Car Carriers ASA (“GCC”) decided then, in consultation with its financial advisors, to postpone the contemplated IPO on the basis of the prevailing conditions in the primary issue market.

Faced with the nearly insurmountable challenge of achieving zero carbon emissions, the maritime industry continues to turn over every stone in this quest as it awaits the perfect fuel.

What does a company with a business model based upon employing its vessels under medium- and long-term charters do with its older vessels, which, although less attractive to charterers, can still trade and make money?

On Tuesday, Global Ship Lease, Inc. (“GSL”) announced that it entered into new agreements which would optimize its balance sheet and manage interest rate risk. The company entered into a new senior secured debt facility which will refinance its outstanding $219.4 million senior secured debt facility, its largest.

This week, Belships ASA announced that it had entered into agreements to sell and lease back two of its Ultramax bulk carriers, the Bellight and Belforest (more fully described below), on bareboat charters for 10 and 11.5 years, respectively.

Today, Golar LNG (“Golar”) provided a status report on the progress it has made with respect to the formation of Cool Company Ltd. (“CoolCo”), which is to acquire Golar’s eight TFDE LNG carriers. CoolCo will have an initial market capitalization of approximately $375 million, of which Golar will retain a minimum shareholding of $125 million.

Having successfully concluded the acquisition of two 2004-built 33,000 DWT stainless steel chemical tankers through Chem Tank Invest V AS, Tailwind Management AS together with Pareto Securities AS quickly spotted another opportunity in this sector, which matched their criteria for another successful project investment.