Shipping
Our commitment to the shipping industry, together with our knowledge and expertise, are well recognised and valued by our customers. The provision of unique financial solutions to the shipping fraternity has proved an equally important factor in the development of our international profile. We are determined to become ever more active as a lead arranger of deals and to offer tax efficient financial products and advisory services to our clients.
We are committed to retaining a close relationship with our customers. We have not only maintained close communication and extensive co-operation with our clients, but have also established specific expertise in all shipping sectors:
Our Research and Strategic Planning team (RASP) provides our commercial offices and customers with valuable and up-to-date information on shipping markets. In an industry where information is vital in order to understand and anticipate cycles and trends, the in-house professionalism and experience of our RASP team has proved invaluable both to our account managers and Asset Management team and equally to our customers.
High growth rates in international trade have led to increased demand for transport capacity in recent years. Freight rates that depend in numerous ways on exogenous factors account for a large portion of transport costs. The question of how these freight rates develop in the future is vitally important to our Shipping Finance customers, in particular the international shipping companies. The Forward Freight Agreement (FFA) is a derivative product that allows these future freight rates to be hedged. Freight rates on specific routes at specific dates can be bought and sold, without the necessity for physical delivery.
The Structured Asset Finance (SAF) team arranges lease and other financial transactions that provide shipping clients with attractive funding levels for the assets involved. The transactions often involve tax-based structuring techniques, third party equity investments and multiple jurisdictions. Our specialised knowledge of the specific operational and regulatory requirements of the respective jurisdictions enables us to design tailor-made solutions for our clients. DVB is uniquely positioned to evaluate and price transportation asset risks, place them in the market or assume such risks itself. This enables us to structure lease transactions that offer our investment clients an interesting diversification option in respect of their portfolios together with attractive risk/reward combinations.