The surge in containership charter and freight rates could be about to hand Deutsche Bank its biggest win since it bet against sub-prime securities in 2008.

Bloomberg cited unnamed sources as saying that Mark Spehn — the German lender's distressed debt trader — has been making bets on Israeli line Zim over the last five years, buying up bonds and bank loans.

The liner operator carried out a $217.5m initial public offering in New York in January at $15 per share, but the price has since risen to $42.35.

Deutsche Bank is now set to make up to $1bn on its investments.

According to Refinitiv data, the German lender is Zim's second-largest shareholder with a 13.68% stake, worth $923m.

On 4 June, Zim said the lender had been among those to sell shares in the company in a secondary offering worth $279m. The stock was on offer at $45.45.

Filings reveal the bank sold $90m of stock, leaving it with a stake worth around $645m.

Some of the lender's gains have already been realised due to debt it owned being redeemed at face value.

If the Bloomberg figures are accurate, the trades represent the bank's biggest profit since the asset-backed securities division took positions against the US sub-prime market in the 2008 financial crash, when it made almost $2bn.

Deutsche Bank and Spehn have not commented.

Danaos offloads shares

Some of the selling shareholders include lenders and shipowners that converted Zim debt into equity in July 2014 as part of a $1.4bn restructuring settlement.

They include Greek boxship player Danaos Corp.