Jim be Nimble: Citibank, Fortis, Bank of Scotland To Sea Containers Rescue

By Matt McCleery

Jim Sherwood, president of marine container lessor, passenger and freight transport operator, and leisure industry investor Sea Containers (NYSE: SCRA), and his finance team headed up by Danny O’Sullivan have once again proven themselves to be nimble. SCRA signed a $160 million bridge loan from Citigroup just two weeks before the July 1, 2003 maturity of nearly $150 million in high yield bonds, and did it subject to selling Isle of Man Steam Packet, which closed July 15, 2003.

Although the company has a mountain of maturities coming in the next few years, SCRA has continued to meet obligations to lenders, lessors and bond holders even after a disastrous 2001 left the company’s balance sheet in a precarious position. There are loads of lessons to be learned here and we’ll go through them in this article.

One lesson is that when a company is as diversified as SCRA is, some area of the business is bound be going right (or wrong) at any given time and that area of the business can be used to raise cash when the need arises.

This is only an excerpt of Jim be Nimble: Citibank, Fortis, Bank of Scotland To Sea Containers Rescue

Content is restricted to subscribers. To continue reading please Log-In or view our subscription options.

Existing Users Login
Username
Password

Related Archive Files

• No Related Post