Major shareholders sell Danish Ship Finance
28 September 2016
The major shareholders in Danish Ship Finance - Danske Bank A/S, the Danish National Bank, A.P. Møller-Mærsk A/S and Nordea Bank AB - have sold their entire shareholdings of 72% of the share capital to Axcel, PFA and PKA. Danish Ship Finance prices the transaction at DKK 4.7bn. Plesner advised the sellers on the transaction.
Danish Ship Finance is the leading ship finance institute in Denmark with loans of DKK 40bn secured on 445 ships. The new owner of Danish Ship Finance is the holding company AXPP ShareCo A/S, which is equally owned by the Danish private equity fund Axcel and the Danish pension companies PFA and PKA.
The agreement is the termination of a strategic process that Danish Ship Finance started last summer to ensure the institute's continued development. To the shareholders - Danske Bank A/S, the Danish National Bank, A.P. Møller-Mærsk A/S and Nordea Bank AB, the agreement represents a divestiture of an activity that is not a part of their core business activities.
The other holders of class A shares in Danish Ship Finance will receive an offer to sell their class A shares on the same terms and conditions as in the just concluded agreement.
The transaction is conditional on the Danish FSA's and the relevant competition authorities' approval.
