Our business area
Danish Ship Finance is one of the world’s largest providers of ship financing, and our vision is to be the obvious choice in ship finance. At Danish Ship Finance, we operate with a loan book of approximately USD 5 billion secured by first-priority mortgages in 600+ vessels. We are funded by the issuance of covered bonds on NASDAQ OMX Nordic. As a ship finance institute, we are supervised by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority.
Our business model
Danish Ship Finance operates on a simple and effective business model that builds on statutory access to solely operate in the ship financing business. At Danish Ship Finance, we offer one product only: loans secured by mortgages.
Based on a slim and professional organisation with an efficient decision-making process, Danish Ship Finance offers a professional and competitive product to Danish and international shipping companies. Our customers engage with skilled and committed employees with extensive experience and knowledge within the ship finance business.
Lending operations
We offer ship financing against security in vessels. We have built a diversified customer and ship portfolio covering a wide range of markets globally.
Financing provided is based on the track record of the borrower, the value of the vessel (the mortgaged asset) and projections for the vessel’s earnings potential. Financing cannot exceed 70% of a vessel’s market value and is always provided against first priority mortgage in the vessel and assignment of insurances relating to the financed vessel(s). The terms of the loan are agreed on an individual basis.
Further information on the vessel types financed by Danish Ship Finance can be found here.
Changes to interest rate benchmarks and discontinuance of (L)IBOR.
Valuation of ship mortgages
Danish Ship Finance values each vessel twice a year. The valuation is conducted by an external broker, who fixes a price for the financed vessels based on supply and demand. Danish Ship Finance may also determine the value itself, for example, based on a specific independent market price or if external assessments have been received for similar vessels. Market valuations are used for reference to determine the loan-to-value ratio on the company’s loans and for control purposes in connection to the biannual impairment charges on loans, advances, and receivables.
Insurance
Shipowners take out insurance in respect of their vessels. The insurances cover a wide range of different risks and perils relevant to the shipping industry, reflecting the areas navigated by the vessels. Vessel related insurances form an important part of a lender’s security, and a lender will therefore always expect that the vessels are properly insured.
When financing a vessel, Danish Ship Finance will always require that the shipowner has, as a minimum, taken out the following insurance types on adequate terms in respect of: Hull & Machinery risks, Protection & Indemnity (P&I) risks and War risks.
The insurance types are described below.
Insurance type
Hull & Machinery
Hull & machinery insurance, including hull interests/increased values, mainly covers partial damage to a vessel and its equipment, total loss of a vessel, salvage, and collision liability (usually in part).
Protection & Indemity (P&I)
P&I insurance is a form of liability insurance that mainly covers cargo loss/damage, personal injury/loss of life, oil pollution, allisions, wreck removal and collision liability (usually in part). There is in principle no upper limit on the amount of third-party liability cover P&I provides, however, certain types of risk are capped, such as oil pollution at USD 1 billion.
War Risks
War risks insurance covers claims attributable to war or various war-like events, which are neither covered by hull & machinery insurance nor by P&I insurance.
MII & MAPP insurance
In addition, Danish Ship Finance will usually require MII/MAPP (mortgagee’s interests) coverage. The MII insurance provides protective cover for the mortgagee, if the shipowner’s primary insurances do not cover, e.g. if the vessel was unseaworthy or if class suspension had been registered for the vessel at the time of the event.
The MAPP (pollution) insurance protects the mortgagee for its possible financial loss, if a pollution claim exceeds the limits of the shipowner’s liability cover. Like the MII, the MAPP insurance only covers the mortgagee’s claim against the vessel insured.