The Freshfields team was led by Dr. Patrick Cichy and Dr. Alexander Glos

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (‘Freshfields’) has advised the Hamburg-based Berenberg Bank on the acquisition of a portion of shipping loans from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), valued at approximately US$300m. Another portion, valued at US$289m, was acquired by the Japanese financial services provider, Orix.

RBS had initially planned to sell its entire Greek performing shipping loans business, valued at US$3bn, in a bidding process, but abandoned this project in the autumn of 2016. Instead, Berenberg and Orix, who were among the bidders, were offered partial portfolios.

Berenberg Bank has not purchased the portfolio for its own credit book, but for a credit fund launched in 2015, in which a German life insurer holds a stake of €250m. Berenberg is also acting as the asset manager with regard to the shipping loan portfolio that Orix has acquired from RBS.

The Freshfields team was led by Dr. Patrick Cichy and Dr. Alexander Glos.