Stockholm-headquartered financial services group,
Carnegie Investment Bank AB, finds itself embroiled in the aftermath of the collapse of OW Bunker as more questions are asked about who was responsible for one of the world's leading marine fuels companies to go bust.
When OW Bunker's initial public offering (IPO) prospectus was unveiled on March 18, 2014, the joint global coordinators were named as Carnegie and the American financial services corporation,
Morgan Stanley. The joint bookrunners were Carnegie, Morgan Stanley and Nordea Bank AB (Nordea) - another financial services group headquartered in Stockholm - and the co-lead manager was ABG Sundial Collier, an Oslo-based investment bank.
The 291-page prospectus included a number of comments regarding the mitigation of risk, such as "In accordance with our
conservative operating philosophy and corporate culture, we reduce or mitigate our marine fuel price risk and credit risk through hedging and insurance and we provide value to our customers and suppliers by being able to leverage our global scale and advanced product offering enabled by our centralised and integrated platform."
The document also said: "As part of our integrated approach, our established risk management function controls and manages risks across our integrated business model. This has supported the successful
growth of our business and creation of a diversified customer base. Our business has proven resilient to changes in macroeconomic conditions, oil and marine fuel prices and shipping rates."
On March 28, shares of OW Bunker were traded on the Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen stock exchange for the first time. The share price closed on the first day of trading at 175 Danish kroner and went on to reach a peak of 186 Danish kroner per share before plummeting to 83.50 per share on November 5, when trading of the company's shares was suspended.
With shares of OW Bunker now worthless, approximately 20,000 private shareholders are esimated to have lost money as a result of the collapse, which also left several hundred people unemployed.
One issue that raised eybrows was how Carnegie, owned by
Altor Equity Partners, was allowed to be responsible for compiling the IPO prospectus of another Altor-owned business, OW Bunker.
The situation was not helped either by Carnegie recommending its clients to buy stock in OW Bunker at 220 Swedish kronor (176 Danish kroner) in May.
Last week's comments by former risk manager, Kenneth Rosenmeyer, who is quoted as saying that the $27 million he made in 2013 was from 'pure speculation', has also led to questions about how the IPO prospectus was compiled and the role of OW Bunker's senior management, the board of directors, Altor and the two prospectus coordinators.
"If there is an indictment on prospectus liability, I'm pretty sure that the two investment banks will be held accountable. Carnegie and Morgan Stanley may have a claim for damages of hundreds of millions of kroner," Jens Møller Nielsen, CEO of the Danish Shareholders' Association told Svenska Dagbladet.
The Danish organization is said to have over 5,800 small shareholders who are prepared to take legal action against those responsible for the bankruptcy. More than 300 million Danish kroner is being claimed in damages, according to Nielsen.
Sweden's
Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA), Finansinspektionen, also appears to be following events closely. The regulator confirms that it has already been in contact with the management of Carnegie.
"We are of course aware of the situation for some time and have also been in contact with the bank and asked questions about the incident. Exactly what the questions were, we cannot comment. But fundamental to all financial supervision, banks should be able to count on operational risks and set aside money to cover them," Jonathan Holst, Head of the FSA, told Svenska Dagbladet.
When asked about events, Rickard Buch, press officer at Carnegie, told Svenska Dagbladet: "It is deeply tragic, what has happened. But we have no reason to speculate on the development of events. We have just now as little information as everyone else."
In answer to a question regarding whether Carnegie fears a claim from shareholders, Buch said: "No, we are confident about the processes and the people we have in the IPOs we are involved in. Carnegie has done more IPOs than any other in the Nordic market and we know what we are doing. But in this dramatic case, we fully understand the anger that shareholders may feel."
