Venue Shopping

Bankers from Paris to Singapore were caught by surprise when home mortgage defaults in America, a market that couldn’t have felt more remote, turned out to have a significant impact on their portfolios because of the way risk has been spread throughout the international financial system. If risk can be spread so broadly, it seems only natural that opportunity should be also, as pioneering financial players gradually cash in on the arbitrage that exists between various financial systems.

Bluewater shipowners, with their assets that move around the globe, are in a unique position to take advantage of arbitrage, not just through trade, which they of course already do, but also through finding the most competitively priced capital sources for their business models. It’s not news to say that the Greek owners have been among the most proactive in leveraging this opportunity, taking their businesses to public equity exchanges first in New York, then in London. But it is our belief that even these brave souls have only just begun to tap the opportunities that will become available as national markets across the globe move slowly towards being truly competitive with one another. A truly competitive market, of course, requires perfect information, and the global equity markets are still a strikingly long way from reaching that goal. This thesis was confirmed when we set out to provide an apples to apples comparison among some of the key stock exchanges for shipping companies. To this end, we asked experts on exchanges around the world for information on listing requirements, fees, processes, restrictions and valuation. While in some cases we found that many of these questions were more easily asked than answered, in others we received more than we had hoped for and were blessed with discussions of the history and current state of several exchanges.

This is only an excerpt of Venue Shopping

Content is restricted to subscribers. To continue reading please Log-In or view our subscription options.