Berenberg sets up two new shipping funds
Germany’s oldest private bank has expanded its portfolio with two new closed-end multi-investor shipping funds. The funds are aimed at institutional investors and are launched in collaboration with Universal-Investment-Luxembourg as an alternative investment fund manager (AIFM), which manages 13 funds of this type for Berenberg with a total volume of around €3 billion ($3.5 billion).
Berenberg said that both funds enable investors to make broadly diversified investments in senior secured corporate or ship mortgage loans starting at mid-single-digit million amounts and are intended to continue the successful history of the already existing funds.
In the segment of secured ship mortgage loans, the Hamburg-based bank said it pursues an extremely conservative approach with senior secured mortgage loans for the major commercial shipping segments with a maximum loan-to-value of 60% – on average significantly below – and loan tenors in the lower maturity band.
“Our long-standing international market presence enables constant access to attractive projects and the structuring expertise of our experienced financing specialists ensures an impeccable track record without defaults. Ship loans have a particularly attractive risk-return profile due to their first-ranking collateralisation through fungible assets and offer conservative investors an ideal entry into the long-neglected trend topic of maritime trade – which is and remains the backbone of the global economy,” said Philipp Wünschmann, head of shipping at Berenberg.