Hamburg: Lloyd Fonds AG, an experienced fund arranger in Germany, is to be converted into the holding company of a shipping company listed on the Hamburg stock exchange. The move is the first of its kind in Germany.
Eleven single-ship entities initiated by Lloyd Fonds will receive a non-cash equity issue offer to transfer their ship operations and their ships to the company.
The ships comprise six container ships of between 1,100 teu and 8,500 teu; and five tankers, built between 2000 and 2007, four of which are Panamaxes. Combined, the 11 vessels have a value of $325.2m, Lloyd Fonds said today, citing a valuer’s report.
Shareholders will vote in April to approve the issue of up to 79,683,716 new shares with pre-emptive subscription rights for the existing shareholders at a price of €3.54 per share, the company said.
Shares that the existing shareholders do not accept under the subscription offer will then be offered to the 11 single-ship entities in consideration of their ship operations in a non-cash equity issue.
Assuming that all the entities accept Lloyd Fonds’ offer, the non-cash equity issue will have a volume of €162m.
The valuer’s report states that the single-ship entities to be transferred are valued at €162.3m, as a result of the absorbance of liabilities.
Once these transactions are complete, Lloyd Fonds aims to increase its owned fleet in the next two years. “This will be done by submitting takeover bids to other ship ownership entities, including those which have been initiated by other arrangers,” the company said.
“Whereas there are many listed real estate companies in Germany, there is no genuine listed shipping company which is more than just an asset platform currently trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange. In this respect, we want to play a pioneering role,” Torsten Teichert, ceo of Lloyd Fonds, said in a statement today.
“With our new business model, we are planning to forge a strong alliance between the company’s shareholders and the ship fund subscribers,” he continued. “We want to create stability, unlock value, preserve transparency but also achieve a positive return. Lloyd Fonds’ position in the capital market is to be leveraged with the aim of assembling a modern and viable fleet generating a steady cash flow and to establish the share as a value proposition.”
