The loan volume at Dutch ship financier NIBC, which also has German shipowners as clients, has slipped below the € 1 billion mark.
At the end of 2023, the company still had € 955 million on its books, around € 160 million less than twelve months earlier. In contrast, the credit volume had grown by a total of 30% in the two previous years.
However, this was primarily due to currency effects after the dollar gained against the euro. In addition, there were a number of unscheduled repayments, NIBC has now announced. [ds_preview]
Last year, projects were financed with clients such as Blystad, Alba Tankers, ForestWave, Leomar, and Olof Brodin, as well as with German shipping companies such as Harren & Partner and Neu Seeschiffahrt.
NIBC also wants to remain active in weak markets
“We not only provide financing in times of a strong shipping market with high ship values, but above all also in times when things are not going so well,” says Michael de Visser, Head of NIBC Shipping.
De Visser was a guest speaker at the HANSA Forum in the fall of 2023 and explained NIBC’s strategy at the time. The bank focuses on smaller shipowners and projects that other banks do not want to do. If there is a loan default, the loss for the bank is not so great. “Then we can still be there for clients tomorrow if the big banks have to make corrections due to large losses,” the banker said just over a year ago.
