Jungerhans: Benchmark Analysis Confirms Good Performance (Germany)

For 40 years, the Jüngerhans shipping company has offered private investors the opportunity to participate in the equity of their vessels. The company, being managed by the family in the fourth generation, from Haren (Ems) is one of the long-standing and reputable providers in the market of closedend funds. During this period, nearly 100 vessels were put into service with a total investment of nearly EUR 1.6 billion.

Of these, already 46 vessels have to date again been successfully sold and the funds were closed. For MV “STEPHEN J”, built on the Martin Jansen shipyard in Leer, investors were for the first time offered participation in the equity of the private limited partnership (Kommanditgesellschaft). It is one of the peculiarities of the shipping company operating largely unnoticed in the capital market, that one of the investors who participated in the first vessel is still today a member of the active shareholders.

The shipping company has taken the 40th anniversary of its first ship funds as an opportunity for the first time to have FondsMedia draw up an external benchmark analysis. Therefore, the results of a total of 24 prestigious underwriters were compared with those of the Jüngerhans shipping company. With an average asset growth of 10.1% p.a. after taxes, the Jüngerhans funds are about 68 percent better than the market average.

The IRR, often used in the industry, amounts to 24.2% p.a. after tax. The funds have an average duration of only about 7 years. The “new generation” ship funds were especially convincing. The funds of which the vessels have been sold from 2000 have a very successful performance of 13.6% p.a. after tax. From the most recent vessel sale in 2010, capital appreciation of 10.39% p.a. after tax was obtained for the investors.

Another special feature to be noted was the 100 percent success rate. This index number indicates that until today, all vessel sales have led to a positive return for investors. In the majority of cases, double-digit returns were achieved after tax. The conclusion of the study by FondsMedia: “No underwriter in Germany has performed a similarly high number of vessel sales with a success rate of 100% and a double-digit asset growth.”

“We hope that this study may also contribute to the current unfortunately often quite indiscriminate discussion on the profitability of shipping investments. Even though our industry is currently still facing many challenges, in particular the ship funds launched during difficult market phases were those that were among the most successful of our portfolio,” as commented by Stefan Jüngerhans on the results.