As 2024 drew to a close, the shipping industry reflected on a year marked by contradictions. Liquidity flowed freely, mergers and acquisitions flourished, and shipowners enjoyed the benefits of historically low leverage.

Everybody has one of those lists: “Things I want to get done before the end of the year.” For many people, it might be a mundane task like cleaning out a closet, finishing-up some lingering legal work, or making a charitable donation, but shipping people think big. Companies: Entrust, Angelicoussis Group, Altera Infrastructure, Euroseas, Nasdaq Capital Markets, Euroholdings, Navios, Eurodry

While some of you were slurping rummy eggnog and ripping open presents, Svein Engh and his band of merry maritime dealmakers were doing something different; they were burning the midnight oil! Companies: EnTrust Global, Blue Ocean Partners, Belships ASA, Blue Northern BLK Ltd, Offshore Merchant Partners , Maas Capital, Fearnley Securities AS, Wikborg Rein, ABG Sundal Collier ASA, BAHR, Watson Farley & Williams

The Sævik family’s Havila Shipping ASA has had a tenuous recent history, like much of the offshore sector. Companies: Havila Shipping ASA, Havila Holding, Arctic Securities AS, Volstad

The decline of a U.S.-flagged international merchant marine is well discussed and documented at this point across multitudes of sources, ranging from the Cato Institute think tank, Senators, even the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Department of Transportation.

As we are only one day into the New Year, we thought we would share some of the predictions for the industry in 2025 by Stifel Managing Director, Benjamin Nolan.

We think 2025 is going to be another active year for M&A, but the drivers will be different than they were in 2024. As a refresher, 2024 was an active year for M&A, with a few particularly high profile take-private transactions that perpetuated a trend towards private/conglomerate ownership. Company: Evercore,

Shipping’s rich history has been full of M&A advances on fellow companies. Sometimes, however, shipping companies invest in one another through passive positions. Companies: Scorpio Tankers, DHT Holdings , Castor Maritime , MPC Capital AG , MPC Münchmeyer Petersen & Co. GmbH, Thalvora Holdings GmbH, Toro Corp, MPC Container Ships, ZIM, MPC Energy Solutions, Wilhelmsen Group , Zeaborn

With the release of our 4th quarter 2024 issue coming, “The Year in Review,” we thought we would give our regular readers a sampling of the transactions and trends we observed in 2024.

New Year's Eve is the last time many would think about new deals. Not Athanasios (“Thanos”) Feidakis and the hardworking management team at Globus Maritime. Companies: Globus Maritime, Paralus Shipholding S.A. , Daxos Maritime Limited, SK Shipholding S.A., Shinken Bussan Co. Ltd.

It is that time of year again where we must inform our readers that this is the last Freshly Minted issue of 2024.

Our CFO panel at Marine Money NYC said it best: The point of deleveraging is to re-lever in the future. Companies: Scorpio Tankers,