A number of important governance, accounting and commercial considerations that any privately-held shipowner pursuing an IPO or looking to issue bonds for the first time should bear in mind.
In a recent judgment of the English Commercial Court, The M/V Smart , which will be welcomed by owners, Mr Justice Butcher held that a shipowner could demand direct payment of freight under a bill of lading even though the bill of lading stated that the freight was payable “as per charterparty” and the vessel’s time charterer was not in default.
Ship-owning joint ventures are a common occurrence in today’s market. This article explores the “Steel Split”, a mechanism that is somewhat unique to maritime joint venture documents.
Watson Farley & Williams have acted as maritime counsel to leading Russian shipowner Sovcomflot on their US$550m Initial Public Offering.