Shipping

Credit crunch risks choking world trade

22 Oct 2008

The cost of trade finance has shot up in the past year. Trust between counterparties is at a premium. Constrained bank balance sheets, currency fluctuations, and nervous counterparties add to the pain. The global economy could suffer severely.

South Korea bids for Europe’s cruise ship skills

18 Jul 2008

STX Group, a South Korean conglomerate, is dissatisfied with its business in lowmargin bulkcarriers. So it has mounted a formal takeover for Aker Yards ASA, the Nordic builder of cruise ships. But it looks like something got lost in translation between Oslo and Seoul.

Tui caught in billionaires’ stand-off

10 Jul 2008

Shipping magnate John Fredriksen and Russian steel baron Alexei Mordashov have both increased their stakes in the German tourism and shipping group. Together they control nearly 30%. They have different visions for Tui s future. Mordashov appears to have the advantage.

Freight index drop points to global problems

18 Jan 2008

The Baltic Dry Index, which has been a good guide to global economic activity, has dropped by 25% in a week. It s a sign that financial woes are hitting the real economy. The odds of a global economic decline and the end of the commodity supercycle are rising.

Could Tui and Temasek ship out together?

10 Jan 2008

The German group is reportedly in talks about combining its HapagLloyd shipping unit with Neptune, 69% owned by Singapore s sovereign fund. Tui s management is keen to keep its shipping inhouse. Yet its stretched financial position gives Temasek the upper hand.

DP World’s $22bn IPO should fly

21 Nov 2007

As western markets jitter, money is still bubbling up in the east. That plus the recent successful flotation of the Hamburg port has allowed the Dubaibased port operator to price at the top of its range making it the Middle East s largest IPO.

Cheap money leads to expensive logistics

6 Aug 2007

Shipping costs are at record levels, as global growth outruns capacity. That will soon feed through to inflation if unchecked. However tempting the Fed may find it to print more money and bail out the markets, the resulting inflation could take a decade to sort out.

Shipping shortage set to soar

2 May 2007

The futures markets is forecasting that rapid vessel construction will force down shipping costs. That s the normal cycle, but Chinese commodity demand is growing even faster than shipping capacity.

P&O might sail back into the stock market

10 Jul 2006

But not as it was. It s DP World, which bought out the ports operator in February, which is thinking about a London flotation. Still, UK investors would be likely to baulk at paying the current private market price for ports. Arab buyers could be more willing.

Hot infrastructure funds may deliver paltry rewards

25 Jun 2006

Infrastructure companies like AB Ports and BAA are boring and stable. Pay top dollar for them and it will be hard to produce juicy returns. Some funds may end up generating returns on investments that are not much better than quoted stocks but without the liquidity.

Goldman, Macquarie empty pockets for ABP

23 Jun 2006

That should be enough to outdo its rival. But Macquarie says it is not out of the race yet. Goldman Sachs has raised its offer by 8% to £2.8bn a jawdropping and nonbargain valuation of 17 times ebitda.

ABP agrees to £2.5bn offer from Goldman group

14 Jun 2006

The investment bank s consortium is set to pick up the UK ports operator at a nonbargain valuation of 15 times ebitda. It may not be over yet. The stock is trading above the agreed 820p price. But any counterbidder would face big obstacles.

Goldman group pries open ABP’s books

23 May 2006

The UK ports operator warmed to a £2.5bn pricetag an 11% improvement on the offer rejected in March. Goldman Sachs will be relieved. ABP is the only one of its four controversial, unsolicited UK LBO approaches that appears to be working.

Market shrugs off potential AB Ports bid

27 Mar 2006

The news was hardly surprising. After all, the ports operator is the only sizable UK infrastructure asset left to buy. But will the rumoured £2.3bn materialise? There s not much to do at ABP. And infrastructure investors have been stingy lately.

US politicians isolated in Dubai crusade

28 Feb 2006

The US accounts for 15% of P&O s global port capacity, but 100% of the fear about security risk from a Dubai takeover. Since that's a job for Homeland Security, not DPW, the affair risks showcasing racism rather than legitimate concerns about port protection.

Trade deficit lies behind US ports quarrel

24 Feb 2006

Petrodollars are piling up in the Middle East. Some are being spent on the controversial Dubai purchase of P&O s US ports. The US deficit seemed painless when it was mostly with Asia. The surplus is shifting to Opec countries which should drive a tougher bargain.

Temasek could upset DPW’s P&O bid

5 Dec 2005

The Port of Singapore owner is unlikely to stop at 5% of the UKlisted operator. It needs 10% to avoid being squeezed out by Dubai Ports. A full bid would make industrial sense, but not financial sense.

DP World hits on neat petrodollar arbitrage

1 Dec 2005

The Dubai ports operator has come up with an innovative $2.8bn convertible bond to finance its acquisition of P&O. It is exploiting a valuation discrepancy between the redhot Abu Dhabi stock market and relative tepid Western ones.

Stelios deftly cashes out of shipping

13 Dec 2004

By assiduously courting the arbs he first blocked a lowball bid. And by helping to shop the firm, he brought in a knockout one. The $1.3bn sale of Stelmar was not an easy deal for the EasyEverything entrepreneur, but his efforts have paid off.

Stelios hits the warpath

21 Sep 2004

The Greek entrepreneur is being treated like a stowaway on his own yacht with Stelmar s $677m agreed sale to private equity group Fortress. But Stelios is not walking the plank without a fight. And he has some good arguments for taking on the Stelmar board.