In a recent episode of “Shipping News on Thursdays” organised by Stephenson Harwood LLP, our Deputy Managing Partner Joshua Politis shared his insights with Jeffrey Tanner on ESG and decarbonisation trends.
From new capital within the industry to how the future might look like for existing players, check out the full recording of the webinar followed by some key takeaways from the episode.
Growing Interest in Next-Step Projects
Over the past few years, there is a general wave of capital leaving due to the global financial crisis. Now with ESG becoming a clear focus for the industry, most of this new capital will be looking at investing in decarbonisation rather than traditional ship finance and incremental changes. There is a lot of excitement seen towards next-step projects. Although how this excitement might translate to actual deployment has yet to be seen, this trend will continue and it’s where there is the most interest at this stage.
The Landscape for Existing Players
ESG has become prominent and companies with no ESG strategy will struggle to attract capital. The alternative lending market, to a large extent, has brought in ESG into the investment process and framework. However, we’re still not at the point where they won’t lend just because the vessel is older or higher on the polluting scale.
On that note, Joshua Politis commented: “It’s one of the parts but you’re not seeing a more favourable pricing for green ships in alternative lending market. They’re generally looking for higher returns and that is historically with older ships and smaller operators.”
“Everything that you do in decarbonisation needs to be done properly and thoroughly. The view that we take is you really need to look at the asset and see if you’re making an incremental savings in emissions or not; and if you have a pathway to get along that spectrum of decarbonisation,” he shared.
For more information on other key trends, click on the image above to watch the full video recording.
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