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Ship
financing is now skewed towards the oil and gas
industry and Asian banks are showing more
interest in the maritime sector, according to
feedback from the Sea Asia 2009 maritime
conference.
One revelation from a session in ship finance
during the conference recently was the changing
landscape of traditional ship financiers in
terms of the amount currently being loaned to
ship owners.
It was noted that of the top 30 banks in global
ship finance last year, 16 had dropped out in
the first quarter of this year and had been
replaced by banks which had previously kept a
low profile in the sector, said Paul Chang, head
of shipping (Asia) and chief representative of
Hong Kong representative office at HSH Nordbank
AG.
Chang said Asian banks were increasingly
attracted to the shipping sector and to ship
finance.
“National shipping lines still had fewer
problems securing finance from their own
national banks, for example the close
relationship between Taiwan banks and Taiwanese
owners,” he said in a statement.
Dagfinn Lunde, a managing director at DVB Bank
SE, said there was still money available from
banks for ship finance.
“If you have the words ‘energy’ or ‘offshore’ in
your project, even some US banks are still
willing to lend,” he said.
Philip Clausius, president and CEO of FSL Trust
Management, a Singapore-based listed shipping
trust fund said: “Develop your relationships
with Asian banks – every Asia-based borrower
needs to achieve a balance between Western and
Asian banks.
“As many Asian banks do not yet have as much
experience in this sector, be patient and take
small, slow steps,” he advised.
FSL now split 50:50 its borrowings for ship
finance between Western banks and banks based in
Asia, and this had worked well for them, he
added.
Meanwhile, session chairman Harald Serck-Hanssen,
the global head of shipping, offshore and
logistics at DnB NOR bank, called on bankers to
devise a new formula which would give borrowers
(shipowners) the thing they need most –
certainty.
Source: The Star
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