JOC Staff | Mar 20, 2013 12:39PM EDT
The two main shareholders of Germany’s troubled HSH Nordbank have raised their guarantees to the world’s biggest shipping bank to 10 billion euros ($13 billion).
The federal states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, which together own 85 percent of the bank, have restored the guarantees to their level during the peak of the global financial crisis.
HSH, which received a $41 billion state-backed bailout in 2011, returned $3.9 billion of the guarantees last year amid expectations of a revival in the global shipping markets, but it has since said it may face increased provisions for non-performing loans.
The Hamburg-based bank’s shipping portfolio is estimated to be worth around $39 billion.