Norwegian banking group DnB NOR said on September 27, 2007 it has opened its first Asian corporate finance office in Singapore to tap the fast-growing market for shipping and energy financing.
The team of four bankers targeting the shipping, transport logistics and energy sectors in Asia will be headed by Joachim Skorge, investment banking director.
The bank said it has been encouraged by the pace of initial public offerings (IPOs) and acquisitions in Asia.
“We believe the pace of M&A activity and the number of stock market listings in this region will increase in the next few years,” Hans Petter Aas, the bank’s head of global shipping, said in a statement.
Singapore, home to the world’s biggest ship fuel bunkering port and Asia’s top physical oil trading centre, is fast becoming a popular capital market for Asian oil services firms, at a time of record crude futures prices over $80 a barrel.
DnB Nor Asia Bank also has offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, with its other corporate finance units in Oslo and New York.
