Oil and gas getting more banks’ attention

An official with a foreign bank says there is still money available from banks for ship finance despite the current global economic slowdown.

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that of the top 30 banks in global ship finance last year, 16 had dropped out in the first quarter of this year and had been replaced by banks which had previously kept a low profile in the sector, said Paul Chang, head of shipping (Asia) and chief representative of Hong Kong representative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: http://thestar.com.my/maritime/story.asp?file=/2009/4/27/maritime/3767480&sec=maritime, 27 April 2009