8 October 2010 - Press Release
Nordcapital raises placing performance: €168 million in three quarters
- Total results up ten per cent over the previous year
- Focus on ship and real estate funds during the fourth quarter
Hamburg, 8 October 2010. Nordcapital, the Hamburg-based issuing house for closed-end investment funds, continued its strong placing performance during the third quarter of 2010, raising a total of approximately €44 million in equity. On a cumulative basis, the company has placed approximately €168 million this year, an improvement of 10% over the same period last year (€152 million). Despite the difficult market conditions, therefore, Nordcapital expects to achieve €200 million worth of placings, exceeding its success of the previous year and above the level achieved in recent years.
The third quarter was notable for the demand experienced for a wide range of products. Investors put their money into shipping portfolios, the forest and solar funds, as well as the bulk carrier E.R. Bordeaux. Also in the third quarter, investors and initiators contributed an increase in capital to the amount of approximately €10 million to secure the liquidity of five ongoing shipping funds.
Focus on shipping and real estate funds during the fourth quarter
Reports from the world of shipping point to a turning point: financed ships should soon be fully operational, charter rates have increased significantly since the beginning of April 2010, and the International Monetary Fund is forecasting growth in world trade during 2010 of nine per cent. With E.R. Bordeaux, the 56,000-tonne bulk carrier, which is put out on long-term charters, Nordcapital has taken advantage of the attractive purchase prices currently on offer and, since the end of the first quarter, has become one of the first issuing houses to once again offer a conventional shipping fund. Around 20 per cent of the equity has already been placed, while analysts at Scope have given the fund an A+ rating.
The successful shipping secondary market range has already been added to in the third quarter with Schiffsportfolio 8. In addition to this, a new real estate fund is soon to be launched onto the market, with an equity volume of €46.5 million, designed to finance the head office of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Amsterdam.