A Wisp of Spring

While sitting home in the midst of a blizzard and with the knowledge that the omniscient Punxatawny Phil announced on Ground Hog Day that we still have 6 more weeks of winter, we know, nonetheless, that spring will inevitably come. Yesterday we attended the morning session of the Hellenic/Norwegian-American Chambers of Commerce 16th Annual Joint Shipping Conference and we felt similarly that the winter of ship finance may also break. While the tone wasn’t exactly upbeat, there certainly were no dirges being sung and it, in fact, appears by their comments that the bankers may be ready and able to return from their year plus long sabbatical. But as Nikolai Nachamkin of DnB and the conference co-chairman would remind me, I am getting off topic.
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Hellenic Norwegian Confab

For the fifteenth year, the Hellenic-American and Norwegian-American Chambers of Commerce presented their Annual Joint Shipping Conference posing the question of  “How Will Shipping Survive the Perfect Storm?” Whether the question was answered or not, attendees were able to garner lots of insights into what happened and what may happen in the future. Once again, the following will highlight what we found of particular interest.

Arlie Sterling of Marsoft provided insights into “what happened” and “what might happen.” The industry did well based upon an explosion in trade and demand and yard capacity limits. The chart below lays out the extraordinary growth.
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Further New York Insights

In addition to being Conference Chairman of the New York Conference, Hamish Norton of Jefferies was also given the challenging assignment of commenting on the capital markets. Certainly, there are no surprises as the “subprime lending crisis is reverberating across all markets.”  Current equity market conditions are at best uninspired with all major indices well down, with most of the damage done in the last eight weeks. YTD domestic equity fund flows are largely negative but less net negative recently. Not surprisingly, to the extent any equity deals were done they were largely done in the financial sector reflecting their need to recapitalize.

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Heidmar Move Signals Value of Pools

In a brilliant transaction for all parties, Heidmar Inc. announced Wednesday that Shipping Pool Investors Inc, (SPII), a company affiliated with the Cardiff Group whose founder is Mr. George Economou (DRYS), has entered into a definitive agreement to pur chase a 49% stake in the company. In a related transaction, senior members of Heidmar’s management will purchase a 2% equity stake in the company. Morgan Stanley, through its subsidiary Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. will retain a 49% ownership stake in the company.

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Athenian and Viking Confab

In front of a packed crowd at the New York Helmsley, the Hellenic-American and Norwegian-American Chambers of Commerce held their 14th Annual Joint Shipping Conference under the catchy title “Are the Bulls and the Bears Right?”

The day started off with derivatives, a tough topic for early in the morning. Nevertheless, the presenters pulled it off and kept everyone interested. To start off Robert Shaw of Mystras Ventures gave a great overview and primer on freight derivatives. In particular, he emphasized their importance of derivatives for hedging but noted that freight volatility and correlation with other commodities has attracted financial players into the market, a recurrent theme.

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DVB Celebrates – Planes, Trains and Ships Turn Out