EMEA News
Institutional Investors Launch OW Bunker Investigation
A group of OW Bunker investors have announced they are launching an investigation into the collapse of the Danish bunker trader and supplier, ShippingWatch reports.
Danish pension funds ATP, PFA, AP Pension, DIP, Industriens Pension, PensionDanmark and Jøp as well as private equity house Maj Invest and Nordic bank SEB said, in a joint statement, that the aim of the investigation is to "understand the sequence of events and…estimate whether there are grounds for making legal liability applicable."
Investment bank Nordea, which led this year's initial public offering (IPO) of OW Bunker, was conspicuously not named.
The investigation will be conducted by law firms Accura and Bruun & Hjejle, with assistance from accountants EY.
It is understood that the investigators will focus on errors and omissions from the prospectus information offered during the IPO, the share sale process, and management decisions taken in the period between the IPO and the group parent filing for bankruptcy on November 7.
The group of investors said that it was important to understand why the company fell and who was responsible.
"OW Bunker's bankruptcy was a significant, unusual and very negative event in the Danish stock market, and there is a considerable need for understanding the sequence of events," they said.
And they have a duty to those who were invested in OW Bunker through them to investigate, they added.
"The institutional investors behind the investigation have a responsibility to their members and customers to find out whether there is a possibility of recovering some of the losses suffered following the bankruptcy of OW Bunker."
If legal liability is applicable, the parties hope there could be a case for financial compensation, but each party is expected to decide separately on further action after the results of the investigation are presented.
ATP had said OW Bunker "management has caused a breach of trust" days before it collapsed.
One Danish shipper recently said there would be no way to avoid paying twice for OW Bunker deliveries in some cases.
