Deal of the Year Awards –2002 – A Moveable Feast

Companies have cut back capital spending.” “Banks have stopped lending.” “Off balance sheet deals are dead.” These are just a few of the sound bytes that have been splashed across the financial papers each and every morning of 2002 – and as far as we can tell they have absolutely no relevance to the world of ship finance. In 2002, shipping deals, just like the ships themselves, kept steaming along around the clock with so much momentum that they couldn’t (and shouldn’t) be stopped. For those of us who have devoted our professional lives to ship finance, it is comforting to know that this industry has once again proven resilient, if not wholly disconnected, to the outside world.

Except for having to suffer through the blubbering omnipresent in the mainstream financial press, 2002 has been a downright delightful year for ship finance. Most banks exceeded their target loan origination volume and we saw a number of truly groundbreaking deals and structures executed. In the realm of Mergers an Acquisitions, Teekay announced that it had purchased Navion for $800m at press time and the pipeline is full for 2003 closings. Asian companies are looking for capital in the international marketplace, the use of mezzanine came into its own, the KG market has survived despite reports of its death, French tax leases are moving to the fore, private equity continues to emerge for the right deals, a few more bond restructurings were concluded and we welcomed TEN and Golar LNG onto the US exchanges. It’s been a good year and we are comfortable in saying that 2003 will be even better.

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