Selling a Story in Dubai

Marine Money is driven in its pursuit of the best source of cost effective capital for shipowners. Today as never in the past the world offers a panoply of options – and a community of shipowners ready, willing and able to explore them all.

On a recent trip to Turkey I was impressed by the number of the times the Dubai exchange was mentioned as a potential future IPO venue. Then just think how much more convenient it would be for Greek owners to avoid the 12-hour flight to New York in their search for capital. Clearly the market is not yet at that stage now, but could it get there? Will the “Singapore of the Middle East” also look to turn itself into a global center for ship finance somewhere down the road?

While it was one thing to watch companies acquire ships with private equity backers and flip them to the public only months later in New York, or to sell 80s-built bulk carriers on the public markets in London, it is, in our view, altogether unprecedented for a company to sell a fleet to the public when nearly 80% by dwt is yet to exist.

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