15 to 20 Firms Contact Investment Recovery Specialists Over OW Bunker

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday November 18, 2014

European investment recovery services specialist Deminor Recovery Services (DRS) has said that 15 to 20 investment firms have been in touch regarding possible legal action against failed company OW Bunker, Reuters reports.

DRS did not give details as to which investors had been in contact.

OW Bunker floated earlier this year in one of Denmark's biggest ever initial public offerings (IPO).

"When you go bankrupt ... months after an initial public offering, then it's a scandal," commented Jesper Langmack, Head of Equities at Danish institutional investor PFA Asset Management.

"The confidence we, as investors, had in investment banks, management and private equity companies behind it (the IPO) has suffered a serious blow in this case."

Erik Bomans, Partner at DRS, said there were questions surrounding prospectus information.

"The company gave fluctuations in oil prices as explanation [for downgrading profit expectations in October] but when we look in the IPO prospectus they emphasise a lot they have unique risk management systems which allow them to keep the impact from fluctuating oil prices to a minimum," he said.

Investment bank Nordea has defended its role as book runner for the IPO, though, saying it conducted a "thorough and correct process assisting OW Bunker."

Separately, efforts to find liquidatable assets for creditors of OW Bunker's Danish companies has been said to be off to a slow start in a process expected to take some time.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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