Standard & Poor’s performs an ongoing credit assessment of Danish Ship Finance and has assigned the following ratings:
Bond rating A
Issuer rating BBB+
Outlook Stable
S&P Covered Bond Rating General Capital Centre, April 2023
S&P Covered Bond Rating Capital Centre A, April 2023
S&P Issuer Credit Rating, June 2023
S&P Issuer Credit Rating, Research update, July 2021
Under the Investment Directive, bonds issued by Danish Ship Finance or by Danish mortgage-credit institutions are considered “gilt-edged” bonds and also designated as covered bonds. The rules stipulate that proceeds from the bond issuance should be invested in assets which, during the whole period of validity of the bonds, are capable of covering claims attaching to the bonds.
In case Danish Ship Finance is declared bankrupt, however, the Act on a Ship Finance Institute provides that bondholders and creditors in agreements on financial instruments entered into by the company to hedge interest rate and exchange rate differences between the issued bonds and the loans shall rank ahead of ordinary creditors.
For its obligations under the bond, Danish Ship Finance is liable to the extent of its equity, the debentures, mortgages, guarantees and other collateral provided to the company in respect of its lending operations.
Bonds issued by Danish Ship Finance follow the same set of rules as bonds issued by Danish mortgage credit institutions. The bonds are glit-edged according to the EU "UCITS Directive".
Moody's Investor Services has rated Danish Ship Finance since 1998. On February 12th 2016 Danish Ship Finance terminated the rating agreement with Moody’s. Please refer to below press release.
Pursuant to Danish legislation, covered bonds and ship mortgage bonds offered by Danish Ship Finance must be described in a published prospectus, which must be prepared in accordance with EU Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1129, and related delegated acts for the purpose of providing information about the issued bonds. The rules on prospectuses came into force on 1 July 2017. Danish Ship Finance's prospectus for covered bonds and ship mortgage bonds has been prepared as a base prospectus including final terms and conditions. The general terms and conditions for the bonds and a description of the bonds and of Danish Ship Finance are provided in the base prospectus. The specific terms and conditions for the individual bonds are set out in the final terms and conditions.
Base Prospectus for Danmarks Skibskredit A/S Bond Programme
Base Prospectus 2023
Base Prospectus of 11 July 2023
Base Prospectus 2022
Base Prospectus of 11 July 2022
Base Prospectus 2021
Base Prospectus of 9 July 2021
Base Prospectus 2020
Base Prospectus of 9 July 2020
Base Prospectus 2019
Base Prospectus of 25 February 2019
Final terms
Base Prospectus 2017
Base Prospectus of 26 October 2017
Final terms
Ship mortgage bonds are available through most Danish banks and broker firms. Danish Ship Finance does not sell its bonds directly to private or other investors.
When issuing new bonds, Danish Ship Finance sells its bonds in large quantities to a bank or a broker firm, which then resells the bonds in the requested quantities to investors.
Danish Ship Finance is under no obligation to trade with or provide buying or selling prices to third parties.
Danish Ship Finance primarily issues bonds in the Danish market, primarily bullet loan bonds. These loans are characterised by the borrower only paying interest during the life of the bond loan, while the principal falls due for repayment on the date of expiry. Furthermore, the bond cannot usually be redeemed before the expiry date.
Covered Bonds
Bonds issued in Capital Center A. Capital Center A was established 28 March 2019.
Debenture bonds
Bonds issued before 1 January 2008. By definition, the bonds are covered bonds (as defined by the CRD) until maturity, even though there is no requirement for regular compliance with loan values.
Ship mortgage bonds
Bonds issued after 1 January 2008 which do not qualify for the covered bond designation. All bonds issued by Danish Ship Finance are on the European Commission’s list of bonds meeting the gilt-edged requirements of Article 52(4) of the UCITS directive (the “Investment Directive”).
Danish Ship Finance offers to store bonds issued by the company if such bonds are registered with VP Securities (“securities register”).
Contact
Danske Bank A/S, New issues/Custody, phone no. +45 45 14 38 60. Danske Bank A/S handles the management of Danish Ship Finance's securities registers. The registers are kept separately from Danske Bank A/S’s other activities.
The bondholders will not be charged any fee for the securities registers.
To a large extent, Danish Ship Finance bases its lending operations on its ability and opportunities to attract stable and long-term loan capital. Danish Ship Finance obtains its funding primarily through the issuance of non-callable bonds. This provides some form of security as Danish Ship Finance knows when the bonds fall due for repayment.
Danish Ship Finance raises funding well in advance of actual loan disbursements. Typically, the liquidity requirement is covered before or around the time when the loan offer is submitted to reduce dependence on prevailing market conditions. Proceeds from the funding are invested exclusively in high-security liquid assets. Investment in the specific asset types and counterparties are subject to Danish Ship Finance's policies for financial risks and credit and counterparty risks.
Open series
Open series are bond series in which Danish Ship Finance regularly issues new bonds. Bonds issued in the same series share the same securities ID code, maturity, payment date(s) and nominal interest rate.
Closed series
If a bond series is closed, no further issuance will be made. However, existing bonds in the relevant series in the market will be available for market trading. All debenture bond series have been closed.
Those by Danish Ship Finance issued bonds which comply with the CRD requirements, are further eligible of carrying the ECBC’s (European Covered Bond council) designation as Covered Bonds.
In order to comply with ECBC’s definition of Covered Bonds, Danish Ship Finance A/S is required to follow the national Danish guidelines on transparency. Under these requirements, Danish Ship Finance A/S publishes key account data and capital ratios on a semi-annual basis. These data are published in accordance with the publication of the annual- and semi-annual financial statements.
Latest published transparency forms: