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Financing Greek maritime has changed significantly over the past decade, and it looks as though the new trend will continue. Gone are the days when Greek owners had a couple of house banks and new loans involved a lunch at the Marine Club or a call to London or Hamburg or Rotterdam.

Despite being in "pause," work continues, and transactions closed. Last week, Dorian LPG, successfully closed two significant financing transactions and, from the look of them, some of the best work can be done from home.

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The above title may well be how the over 400 attendees of the 21st Annual Marine Money Greek Ship Finance Forum recall the day. The session referred to as "Captains of the Industry" was a far too brief look back at shipping's last 30 years as viewed by two gentlemen who were not merely participants but shapers of those events.

Shown below is Eggar Forrester Shipbrokers latest summary of reported ship sale transactions for the year. Clearly there are far fewer ships to finance these days.

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ESG continues to grow its toehold in ship finance as evidenced in Mærsk's latest refinancing.

There are benefits to simplification. This week, Diana Shipping Inc. announced that it had signed a term loan facility with ABN AMRO Bank, through six wholly-owned subsidiaries, in the amount of $52.885 million, divided into two tranches.