After almost two years of intensive negotiations and preparations, Jüngerhans has succeeded in securing financing for 10 heavy-lift ships.

The fleet, which is divided into two classes of 8,000 and 10,000 dwt, was built at the Portuguese shipyard Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo S.A. (ENVC) between 2006 and 2010 for Jüngerhans. The debt financing for the vessels was originally provided by a bank whose stated aim was to clean up its loan book for all of its ship financing, Jüngerhans states. However, several attempts by the bank to reduce their portfolio, including a loan sale of a cross-customer portfolio of over 40 ships, could not be implemented.

Jüngerhans had meanwhile relentlessly pushed for an own solution for this fleet. At the turn of the year 2019/2020, the company succeeded and a commercial agreement was reached on the replacement by the bank.

Covid-19

This transaction should have been implemented in the spring of 2020. The equity required for this had been signed by the shareholders and paid into a trust account. However, the loan approval, which was still subject to a board decision, was not redeemed because the bank’s responsible credit committees had suspended all credit decisions for several weeks against the background of the lockdown in the wake of the emerging corona pandemic.

As a result, the transaction began to falter and the bank now forced a gradual realization of the ships. In the course of further negotiations, however, it was possible to win two regional banks for the financing. Together with the newly contributed equity, the technically high-quality vessels are facing a market level that is currently rising again in an economically significantly improved situation.

Thanks to new financing, the Jüngerhans heavy-lift fleet is now financially sound again and well-positioned for the future.