ATHENS: The wide margin of difference between the health of Greece and German shipping is clearly illustrated by the deal for the sale of 14 oceangoing vessels by German bank HSH Nordbank AG debtor companies to Greek firm Navios, owned by Angeliki Frangou.
The German lender has long tried to administrate a portfolio of bad shipping loans worth several billion euros. Now Navios Maritime Holdings Inc, Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation and Navios Maritime Partners are buying out seven German-owned container ships and seven dry-bulk carriers through a newly formed company, Navios JV. This is Navios’s second such transaction recently as it acquired another 10 ships from HSH in a similar fashion a year ago. The financial structure of the transaction is seen as particularly attractive for Navios.
The fact that Greek-owned shipping firms are buying large sections of the once-mighty German container ship fleet is not going down well with the German public, as people there find it hard to understand that many German shipping companies were destroyed during the German shipping crisis, inflicting huge losses both on themselves and their country’s banks, while Greek shipping continues to grow.
