Griffin provides merger and acquisition advisory services and strategic consulting services to clients within the maritime industry. We assist maritime companies in obtaining financing through institutional placements of debt, mezzanine capital and equity, including businesses in financial difficulty or operating under the protection of a bankruptcy court. We also provide outsourced corporate development services to our clients.

Representative Engagements:

• Served as lead financial advisor to Atlantic Marine Holding Company, a large private shipyard group in the U.S., in its sale to J.F. Lehman & Co., a New York-based private equity investor


• Served as FIC-appointed corporate advisor to U.S. Ship Management, Inc., a leading U.S. flag container ship operator acquired by Maersk Lines Ltd.


• Served as FIC-appointed financial advisor to Telaurus Communications, a maritime satellite communication company


• Arranged private equity for second stage development of shipping applications service provider and an underwater robotic survey company


• Raised more than $3 billion in equity and debt for international shipping projects, including 12 new container ships for the government of the former East Germany; eight general cargo ships for a Chinese state shipping company; four multi-purpose cargo ships for a U.S. public company; six large iron ore carriers for a German steel mill; six tankers for a Spanish oil company and six new products tankers for a European oil major


• Arranged a $350 million acquisition finance for a large shipping subsidiary of the major German industrial group Thyssen Krupp


• Completed the first U.S. public bond issue ($250 million) for a private shipping company


• Developed transportation and hotel financing projects for the U.S. investment banking arm of a major French bank


• Established the U.S. branch of a United Kingdom merchant bank in New York specializing in transportation finance and mergers and acquisitions in the newspaper and magazine industries


• Formed the first maritime merchant bank with equity from four major Canadian corporations
  • Acquired 55 ships in five years – all leased to industrial corporations in Europe, the U.S. and Asia
  • Pioneered new lease financing techniques, including tax shelters and operating leases
  
  
• One of our professionals was responsible for aircraft and ship leasing and finance for a merchant bank subsidiary of the major U.K. colonial bank Grindlays
  • Developed second largest marine loan portfolio among U.K. merchant banks
  • Established branch offices in Greece and Hong Kong
  • Responsible for loan and asset recovery, sorting out problem loans and investments in South Africa, Kenya, the Philippines, Greece and the U.K.
  • Financed ship owners in Greece, Hong Kong, Scandinavia, the U.S. and the U.K.
  • Arranged mortgage financing for new ships built in Japan, Taiwan, Spain, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany and the U.K.
  • Pioneered the syndication of ship-mortgage debt

Other Related Experience:

• Served as consultant and advisor to the Government of Portugal on establishing the Madeira Free Trade Zone and Ship Registry


• One of our professionals served as senior principal to a nationwide organization that focused on corporate restructuring, renewal, turnaround, crisis and interim management needs and opportunities. The organization’s professionals had possessed intimate knowledge of and experience with troubled enterprises