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No Hype. We Delivered!
Our Chairman’s promotions are sheer artistry and we constantly marvel at these masterful gems. Of course, there are issues with punctuation but why let that get in the way of a great pitch. The amazing thing is that despite his protests otherwise, he really does get it. Our problem is that he is rubbing off on us and we are moving from analytical and objective to the dark side where it’s all about the love as both Matt and he are fond of saying. In the case of this year’s Marine Money week, there is no doubt we got it right. The numbers speak for themselves. This year we went out on a limb denoting the theme as the Comeback or Confidence Returns to Ship Finance. Whether or not that was the case and we believe it is, 1,078 registered guest wanted to hear the answer. This was a new record surpassing 2008’s 1042 guests. Uncertainty + optimism trump a boom.
We relish the awards afternoon. We devote a great deal of energy, although far less than the dealmakers themselves, in choosing the transactions from the many submissions we receive and it is a pleasure to see the winners bask in the recognition they rightfully deserve. It is also educational as the latest structures and ideas are on display for all to see and take advantage of as appropriate. Nigel Thomas and Dan Rodgers of Watson, Farlay & Williams did a masterful job moderating the session which included presentations by Sheldon Goldman, Efthymios Bouloutas of Marfin, Ronny Bjornadal of Nordea, Sean Durkin of NSF, Gerrit Parker of Citi and Craig Fuehrer of Deutsche Bank.
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Memories and a Miscalculation
The Good News
We wonder whether in preparing his keynote address for our Hamburg conference entitled Memories, a view of what happened to and where the industry is heading, Mr. Arntzen had a memory of his own and thought, “Wasn’t there a time when OSG accessed the capital markets?” Seizing on the thought and the opportunity, Mr. Arntzen jumped on the Lexington Avenue Express and headed down to Wall Street to arrange a follow-on offering of OSG’s shares. Given the high repute and credit standing of his company, Mr. Arntzen knew the investment banks were hungry and would compete heavily for his deal. There was no need for an overnight or marketed transaction so he simply arranged an auction among the banks (more than 5 but less than 10) for 3.5 million of OSG shares.
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Old Face, New Place
Loli Wu, Citi‘s talented ship finance executive is the latest professional to make a career move, as our industry works its way through the current economic turmoil. Mr Wu moves from Citi to BofA Merrill Lynch and Matt Thomson‘s team in NY.
Such moves are not uncommon benefiting the professional, the new employer and even the previous employer who has the chance to reward others working with but just behind the team leader.
More importantly the industry benefits.
Not Just a Warm-up
Prior to the start of the festivities, Teekay Corporation held its successful shareholders meeting. The room was filled with over 100 spectators with another 200 viewing through the webcast. What was extremely interesting to hear from the Teekay delegation was the acknowledgement that they did not recognize many of the people in the room. Fresh blood!
The first session began under cloudy but dry skies an unusual event in New York these days. The room was packed with the audience hoping to glean insights from last year’s deal of the year winners as the architects of the transactions discussed their deals and how they fit in today’s marketplace. The discussion was led by Stephen Peepels of DLA Piper.
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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.
The Official Guide To Marine Finance Providers
Shipping Index
