Deutsche Bank is on course to make up to $1 billion on a remote chance bet on Israeli shipping firm Zim after it surged in value on the back of record-high global cargo rates, informed sources revealed Tuesday.
Referring to anonymous sources acquainted with the matter, the report said that Mark Spehn, a troubled debt dealer at the German bank, had bet under $100 million in the course of recent years on building a position in the company through bonds and bank loans as delivery rates fell.
Zim recuperated to glide on the stock exchange on Jan. 28 this year and has nearly tripled in value since, yielding strong additions for its investors and making it among the most successful of recent initial public offerings.
As indicated by Refinitiv data, Deutsche Bank is the company’s second biggest investor with a 13.68% stake, worth $923 million.
Zim said on June 4 that Deutsche Bank had been among those to sell shares in the company in a secondary offering worth $279 million.
If valid, the numbers would make the Zim trade quite possibly the most profitable for the bank since its assets-backed securities division made bets against the U.S. subprime sector in the run up to 2008 financial crash, raking in nearly $2 billion.
