Berenberg in $1.1bln Box Bid
The world's second-oldest bank Joh. Berenberg Gossler & Co. KG is lining up a new fund worth EUR 1bn ($1.1bn) for the containership sector.
A report appeared in Bloomberg said that will boost lending to the maritime industry through the shipping fund for institutional investors seeking an alternative to record low bond yields.
Andreas Schultheis, head of international shipping at Berenberg said that his bank plans to draw insurers, pension funds and saving banks into shipping, promoting the debt fund as a counter-cyclical investment.
The first step will be a 100 million-euro portfolio in the first half of this year and the bank believes it may grow to 1 billion euros in the coming years.
The container industry is battling years of overcapacity and commodity shipping rates are near record lows.
The bank believes the yield will be several times higher than the interest on corporate bonds issued by rivals like HSH Nordbank, which sold debt at 0.5% this month. The fund will be registered in Luxembourg.
Berenberg manages assets of EUR 30bn and has worked on bond issues with German container line Hapag-Lloyd in the past.
