EuropeFinance and Insurance

Italian bank readies to offload shipping loans

Genoa-based lender Banca Carige has put up for sale the financial exposures of three shipping companies which are worth some $750m. The loans classified as ‘unlikely to pay’ (one step before the ‘non performing loan’ stage) and related to Ignazio Messina & C. ($585m), Finbeta and Scerni di Navigazione are part of a bigger amount of credits the bank wants to offload before the end of the current year in order to clean up its balance sheet.

Finbeta is a shipping company based in Savona, owned by the Bertani family and active on the market with five small chemical tankers.

Scerni di Navigazione has just two aframax tankers managed by Monaco-based Andromeda Shipping and time chartered out to Glencore’s ST Shipping. 

Messina’s fleet consists of eight modern conro ships which are intended to be partially sold to MSC (probably four of them) as part of the deal through which the group controlled by Gianluigi Aponte is expected to purchase a 49% share of the Genoa-based group owned by the Messina family.

Sources familiar with the matter told Splash that the scheme of the deal will see MSC take 49% of Messina Group, which will remain the owner of four ships, a terminal in Genoa and all of its commercial network. Another vehicle controlled (51%) by Aponte and participated (49%) by Messina is expected to own the remaining four ships in the fleet.  

A pre-sale agreement may be sealed on Wednesday in Genoa where Gianlugi Aponte is expected to land.

Nicola Capuzzo

Nicola is a highly qualified journalist focused on transport economics, logistics and shipping with broad experience in both online and printed media. Specialties: shipping, ship finance, banking, commodities and port economics. He regularly interviews Europe's top shipowner executives for Maritime CEO magazine.
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