NASDAQ-listed owner-operator Pangaea Logistics Solutions [PANL] says it plans to offer shareholders a quarterly dividend for the first time since going public in 2014. The US bulk carrier firm says it will pay US$ 0.035 from 11 June. CEO Ed Coll said the company had a proven business model and that after reinvesting profits in operations, Pangaea expected to become a leading “growth and income” company that cares about enhancing shareholder value. The company says it has managed to stay profitable, despite the ongoing dry bulk crisis, by offering logistical solutions to industrial clients with its owned and chartered-in fleet. Pangaea boasted income of US$ 3.7m against revenues of US$ 79.5m in Q1-2019.
Hamburg Commercial Bank (HCOB, formerly HSH Nordbank) says it intends to loan about EUR 1 billion to maritime projects annually for the coming few years despite having endured significant losses in the last shipping loan collapse of some ten years ago. The bank’s current shipping portfolio, at about EUR 5 billion, is much smaller than the EUR 40 billion portfolio it controlled in the heyday of 2007, mostly fuelled by returns of the German KG system. Bank head of shipping, Jan-Philip Rohr, told the media recently that the bank had “learned its lessons”, warning that shipping today is nevertheless a far cry from the financial bubble days of the early 2000s. Rohr says that HCOB’s lending philosophy will stay conservative but has simultaneously become more outward-looking with 62% of the bank’s shipping business already existing outside of Germany.
Danish bulker and tanker owner Norden has signed a three-year deal with chemical company Qatar Vinyl Co. to ship 500,000mt of salt per year. The agreement involves shipping regular (monthly, probably), Supramax cargoes of salt from WC India to the company’s plant in Qatar to be used for chemical production. The company is a subsidiary of Qatar Petrochemical Co., which creates chemicals and polymers. CEO Jan Rindbo said the contract would enable his company increase tonnage flow of into the AG area, which is in line with Norden’s general intentions to expand its activities and operations in the Mid East.
For shipbroking and investment analysis like this every day, subscribe to the BMTI Daily Report.
