CORE COURSES
Shipping and Transport Finance
Background
Shipping finance has always played an essential role in the development and
growth of the maritime industry. As a matter of fact, MEL has introduced
‘finance’ as a ‘fifth’ shipping market, together with chartering; secondhand
transactions; ship recycling and shipbuilding. The traditional, equity-based,
methods of ship-financing are nowadays a thing of the past. New, highly complex,
financial products have been developed, ranging from structured finance and
lease-charterback deals to IPOs and private equity finance. A thorough
understanding therefore of sources and methods of ship-financing is a sine
qua non for the shipowner/investor who needs to optimize his capital
structure under conditions of risk and uncertainty. Diversification, sound
financing and risk management are the most crucial elements for long term
survival and profitability in shipping: the most central and important component
of global supply chains of bulk and containerized goods.
Objectives
In cooperation with MEL partners, Fortis Bank and DVB Bank, the Shipping and
Transport Finance Course is aiming at providing students with the understanding
of the key issues in the financing of ships, ports, transport and other
infrastructure projects. At the end of the course students will be able to
develop, appraise, negotiate and choose among alternative investment proposals
under conditions of risk and uncertainty; they should know how to hedge against
risk through such instruments as Forward Freight Agreements and other derivative
products; and they should have acquired a thorough all-round understanding of
the ship-finance banking business.
Recommended Reading
• Harwood S (1995). Shipping Finance, 2nd Ed; Euromoney Publications.
• Stokes P (1997). Ship Finance, Credit expansion and the boom-bust cycle,
2nd Ed, LLP.
• Brealey R.A, Meyers, S.C. and Franklin Allen, S.C. (2003). 7th ed.
McGrow-Hill.
• A set of academic publications on the subject.
