Over the past decade, more than two dozen private credit funds have entered the ship finance market. The thesis is well established: as commercial banks increasingly focus their balance sheets and attention on larger clients and transactions, non-bank lenders have stepped in to provide small and mid-sized shipowners, which still represent the vast majority of the shipowning community, with fast, flexible, and reliable capital.

Dry cargo owner/operator Cetus Maritime has been among the industry’s most confident dealmakers in recent years — and the momentum keeps building.

At no point in recent memory has the U.S. maritime industry seen more impactful change than it is experiencing at present. Companies: Hanwha Systems, Hanwha Ocean, Philly Shipyard, Aker ASA, Hanwha Philly Shipyard, anwha Defense USA, Vard Marine U.S., Austal USA , Austal, HD Hyundai, Edison Chouest Offshore, Tampa Ship , Kiewit Offshore Services, Kiewit Corp., Huntington Ingalls Industries, Siemens, Samsung Heavy Industries , Saronic Technologies , Vigor Marine Group , Conrad Shipyard

On Aug. 7, Seaspan Corporation Pte. Ltd. announced it sold RMB 1.5 billion of three-year notes into China’s domestic bond market on July 15, roughly $210 million, becoming the first international shipowner and operator to issue a Panda bond. Companies: Seaspan Corporation, People’s Bank of China, COSCO, China Shipping , COSCO Shipping, Poseidon Corp., Hengyuan Asset Investment, Ocean Network Express, Fairfax Financial Holdings, International Seaways, Navios Maritime Partners , Scorpio Tankers , Contships Logistics, Daimler, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

The last five years have seen a steady flow of acquisitions in the North American maritime market via M&A transactions, with a handful of key buyers making bolt-on acquisitions to expand and diversify their maritime holdings.

On Tuesday, our friends at BW LPG raised $300 million through the sale of senior unsecured convertible bonds on terms attractive to the issuer, the current shareholders and the new convertible bond holders.

It is the email or phone call that every lender fears these days: a client requesting to prepay a lease or loan in order to move their business to a lender or lessor offering a lower rate. Companies: Seacon Shipping, AVIC, Guangzhou Yuexiu Financial Leasing, Tianjin Maxwealth Changyang No.4 Leasing, Bank of Ningbo

“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” American statesman Benjamin Franklin famously wrote in 1789. Companies: Bloomberg, American Petroleum Institute, Cato Institute, American Maritime Partnership, American Waterways Operators, Overseas Shipholding Group

For several years, U.S.-based offshore marine services company Hornbeck Offshore Services has been plotting its return to the public market. Last week, it got there without having to raise a single dollar.

The specific question posed to Mr. Olsen, founder of maritime-focused fundraising shop Langschiff Capital Partners, was this: is there room in the marketplace for more dedicated maritime funds?

In today’s elevated asset market, shipowners face an existential choice: buy, sell, or hold. Companies: NRP Project Finance, Fearnley’s, Clarksons, Simonsen Vogt Wiig, BAHR, Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding, Castor Maritime , Lila Global, Lorentzens Skibs

More than twenty years ago, over a long lunch at the long-gone and much-loved Sushiden, ship finance guru
Peter Evensen told me about a dream he had. I had forgotten about it until this week. Companies: JP Morgan, Fearnley Securities, Castor Maritime, Suisse-Atlantique Group, European Maritime Finance, Daehan Shipbuilding, YieldStreet, Okeanis, CrowdStreet, Fundrise, EquityMultiple, Shipfinex, ADI Chain,