eShipfinance.com is the first financial start up platform in shipping

In Elnavi

Mr. Dagfinn Lunde (Chairman) and Mrs. Marina Tzoutzouraki (CFO) of SFG Ship Finance Global Ltd) ‘eShipfinance. com’ explain how this new revolutionary platform operates and refers to the advantages of this financing solution.

Does your bank/organisation provide adequate lending capacity to shipping companies and under what criteria?
We are not the ‘providers’ of bank finance. In essence, we are a B2b platform that can be utilised by a shipowner to reach a broader spectrum of investors, in order to obtain financing within certain parameters.

​Do you agree with the strict Central Banks regulations (Basel rules) to avoid softening of loan covenants and aggressive lending? 
Yes we agree, banks in the past have been reckless with overlending and hence this has led to a bad market situation. Lending institutions should therefore exercise caution and a set a discipline in their lending policies.

Capital markets and Equity Private Funds have covered the gap of the reduced bank financing capacity. Do you believe that these funds will continue to support shipping? 
Capital markets and Equity Private funds have covered a certain percentage, of the financing required to support shipping investments. As per Petrofin’s report debt has dropped by 25% while total world fleet has grown by 28%. There is definitely room for these funds to continue financing shipping projects.

How did you manage to survive the prolonged financial crisis (diversification, long term approach, etc)? 
We are a startup, currently in the last stages of concluding the modules of the platform. As already stated we are not a financing institution, we give the opportunity to a shipowner to prepare his business plan, which will be run with the platform’s algorithms and will give him the opportunity to prepare a project proposal, that will then be modified into an investment proposal to be reviewed by investors. Investors can choose to invest anything from 10-100% in each project.

Describe the competitive advantages of your bank/organisation and your approach to minimize a debt failure/risk. 
We have seen that through the years, 50% financing is the lowest probability of default.