Members of the Leif Hoegh family and a key executive have arranged new private financing by pledging their entire $352m stake in car carrier company Hoegh Autoliners.

The Oslo-listed shipowner said in a filing that Leif Hoegh & Co Holdings, controlled by Hoegh Autoliners chairman Leif O Hoegh and directors Morten W Hoegh and Martine Vice Holter, has put 91.5m shares up as security.

They have entered into a three-year financing facility worth $20m.

Holter is also chief executive of Hoegh Capital Partners (HCP), the family investment office located in London and Oslo, and a director of Hoegh LNG.

A spokesman for Hoegh Autoliners said the deal had no impact for the company.

But he did not provide information as to what the money would be used for.

The share slice represents 47.97% of the shipowner’s stock.

The only other significant shareholder is AP Moller-Maersk with 26.4%.

The Hoegh family has been pumping money into gas shipping operation Hoegh LNG in recent months in order to avoid a more expensive bond buyback.

In April, TradeWinds reported another major equity injection from the family and investment partner Morgan Stanley.

Cash raised by partners

The FSRU and LNG carrier owner’s annual report showed the company raised another $19.8m from the shareholding partnership between the Hoeghs and the US investment bank on 21 April, following injections totalling $48m in 2021.

Fearnley Securities said the deal showed “continued shareholder support”.

The month before, Hoegh LNG avoided a requirement to buy back two bond issues at 102% of par by pledging shares in US-listed spin-off Hoegh LNG as security for bondholders.

This was a temporary measure ahead of planned $100m equity injections by the end of 2022 to stave off the more expensive bond repurchase while it considers “growth initiatives”.

Fearnleys interpreted this as meaning the company’s offer to take over Hoegh LNG Partners.

On 6 December last year, the partnership received an unsolicited non-binding offer from Hoegh LNG to acquire all its shares.

Deal approved

This week, Hoegh LNG Partners’ shareholders have approved the merger.

The New York-listed LNG shipowner said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday that shareholders voted affirmatively on the $9.25 per share deal to take the company off public markets.

“The merger is expected to close on or about September 23, 2022,” Hoegh Partners said in the filing.

Hoegh LNG was a public company itself a public company until a March 2021 agreement with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners made the company into a private, 50-50 joint venture in a $214m deal.