Berenberg gets US$500m private equity boost for ship loans

Hamburg

GERMANY'S oldest bank has reeled in about US$500 million in private equity funding to invest in ship loans as the asset class abandoned by many of its peers regains some lustre.

Joh Berenberg Gossler & Co KG, based in Hamburg, signed a memorandum of understanding at the end of June with an international investment firm, which declined to be identified, to jointly grant loans to about 400 Berenberg shipping clients. The partners are seeking to fill funding gaps left by Germany's biggest ship financiers, who have turned their backs on new loans as they unwind legacy assets that went sour after the financial crisis, Philipp Wuenschmann, Berenberg's head of shipping, said in an interview.