HSH Nordbank to arrange finance for a fleet of 13,100-TEU container ships on behalf of MPC Capital

Hamburg/Kiel, April 21, 2008 - A syndicate of banks led by HSH Nordbank AG has today signed the syndication of a loan for MPC Capital AG amounting to US$ 1.1 billion (€ 689 million) to finance a total of nine 13,100-TEU container vessels.

As mandated lead arranger, HSH Nordbank will provide US$ 427 million, or nearly 39% of the final finance. Others in the syndicate are Calyon Crédit Agricole CIB and Dresdner Kleinwort as joint lead arrangers as well as Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG and Deutsche Schiffsbank AG as co-arrangers.

“To us the transaction is further evidence that substantial syndication deals are possible despite the unfortunately persisting, diffuse conditions on the credit markets,” said Harald Kuznik, Head of Shipping at HSH Nordbank.

The transaction comprises both build-phase finance for the nine vessels and final finance. The ships will be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. and delivered between April 2011 and June 2012. MPC Capital has already signed long-term charter agreements with Korea’s Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd., one of world’s largest shipping companies. The plan is to incorporate the nine ships in a closed-end fund.

The vessels financed belong into the segment of super post-panamax ships. Their proportion of the world’s fleet of fully containerized carriers (FCCs) came to about 13% in 2007, a figure that will rise to more than 21% by the end of 2010 and probably even further in the years thereafter.

HSH Nordbank is the world’s leading provider of ship finance with total business amounting to approximately € 34 billion and around 3,400 ships in its portfolio. In particular, the Bank’s range of products and services for shipping companies operating on an international scale includes long-term ship-mortgage loans, finance during construction and structured ship finance.

The Bank assists its customers both in carrying out projects to build new vessels and in purchasing ships from other sources. HSH Nordbank’s business in this area breaks down into the three main markets of container vessels, tankers and bulk carriers. However, HSH Nordbank also provides customized solutions involving a large variety of specialized ships. In addition to the pure lending business, HSH Nordbank has been focusing to an increasing extent on comprehensive advisory services for all types of shipping companies.

Apart from structured and innovative financing methods, the Bank also offers one-stop solutions covering all potential financial service requirements. Innovative instruments for hedging interest, currency and oil-price risks (e.g. changes in the price of bunker oil) round off the range of products on offer. Here, HSH Nordbank offers solutions that are designed to hedge the risks involved in each individual case.

MPC Capital AG develops, manages and sells innovative investment products to wealthy private clients in Germany and Austria as well as to institutional partners. The Hamburg-based wealth and asset manager offers closed-end real estate funds, equity interests in ships, life insurance funds, private equity funds, opportunity funds as well as conventional investment funds, certificates and insurance solutions.