Fourth shipping trust in Singapore may be coming from Japan

Fourth shipping trust in Singapore may be coming from Japan A Japanese shipping trust could raise up to $500 million in a Singapore initial public offering, according to a report this week in the Chinese newspaper The Standard.
   An executive at trust manager Uni-Asia Finance Corp. told the newspaper the likely offering would seek to raise more than any of the three previous shipping trusts to go public in Singapore in the past year — Pacific Shipping Trust, First Ship Lease, and Rickmers Maritime Trust.
   “The size of the other three issues ranged from about $100 million to $500 million, so we would like to raise at the high end of that range,” said Mark Fukumori, Uni-Asia Finance executive vice president.
   The trust recently teamed with trading heavyweight Mitsui and transport broker Exeno Yamamizu to buy a fleet of six mid-sized ships for $300 million, with another $43 million sunk into a private Singapore-based shipping fund that is exempt from lease revenue on its fleet of ships. The rest of the financing will come from $260 million in bank debt, The Standard reported.
   Fukumori said the group may take six month before marketing the IPO, but that investor demand was strong for the three previous shipping trusts.
   “We are feeling the strong response from the retail investor based in Singapore who supported the previous three issues,” he told the newspaper.