Emanuele Ravano sits in the Cafe des Philosophes under Ifchor’s office in Lausanne, Switzerland, having outlined what he believes makes the shipbroker tick.

It is a lesson in humility not usually found in the shipbroking fraternity involving his adherence to a “window and mirror” leadership model. “You look out the window when you have to attribute successes. And look in the mirror when you have to blame and take responsibility.”

It is a lesson learnt from his father, Riccardo Ravano, the company founder.

“This is the task now,” says Ifchor’s chief executive, “to replicate those values in a very different environment where broking is very different.”

Ifchor is at the start of a new era. The company was set up in 1977 by Riccardo, a descendant of the Ravano shipping family of Genoa, Italy.

The choice of name, it turns out, is accidental — the result of a clerical error when the registrar in Switzerland mistook one of the letters (s for f) in the acronym Ischor (Italoswiss Chartering Organisation).

By the time the company name was lodged, the business was established and the name stuck.

Forty years on, Ifchor has grown to become the fourth-largest dry cargo brokerage and the 10th-largest shipbroker — something that was cause for celebration at a party in Lausanne in September.

It is an impressive legacy for Riccardo Ravano, who founded Ifchor after emigrating from his native Italy when communism and political terrorism were making it difficult for businessmen.

Ifchor founder Riccardo Ravano at the celebrations marking the company’s 40th anniversary. Photo: Ifchor

He was joined four years later by Claudio Ceccarelli and the late Giovanni Calleri. His brother, Giuseppe Ravano, came onboard as the fourth partner in 1987. Callieri, who died in 2012, was “a tremendous partner for my father”, Emanuele Ravano says, adding: “They were very complementary. This is what I’m working on now. We have people here who are very complementary to me.”

Ifchor grew from early roots in grain trading, giving it a strong foothold in the panamax bulker business. In the late 1990s it started to diversify and move away from the four-partner model.

Early steps saw it pioneer forward freight agreements, led by the charismatic shipbroker Giorgio Martini.

By 2000, it employed 40 people and was moving into big bulkers with the formation of Ifchor Capes, founded by Errol Barclay, who is a partner. Emanuele Ravaro joined the cape desk in 2002.

Ifchor moved into Hong Kong and Singapore in 2011 and 2012, as well as into the smaller bulk sector to broker handies and supramax cargoes.

Internationalisation has helped push the firm into the top 10 shipbrokers. It employs 146 brokers in nine offices around the world, according to Alphabulk.

In dry bulk, Ifchor is listed as the fourth-largest shipbroker, with a shade under 70 staff. That is fewer than third-ranked dry cargo broker Barry Rogliano Salles, but more than well-known names such as Arrow, Braemar ACM and Howe Robinson. Most work in the main hubs in Lausanne and Singapore.

“We have started building around those regional hubs that are helping us to grow regionally and tap into local markets,” Ravano says. And Ifchor no longer views itself as an Italian broker: it has more than 20 nationalities and its Italian staff has shrunk to one-third of the workforce.

Riccardo Ravano enjoys the company's 40th birthday party. Photo: Ifchor

Having such a diverse staff “allows us to tap into local markets and better understand those mentalities. This is crucial. If we had remained only in Genoa or Italy, we would have been limited in reach and business.”

Other offices opened in Athens in 2014 and New York in 2015. Last year saw a partnership with a senior broker in Melbourne, Australia, and Ifchor is looking at opening a representative office in South Africa. “These are regional markets that you wouldn’t be able to reach unless you had a very experienced person able to reach them,” he says.

The plan to generate a sustainable business in an era when traditional shipbroking is facing challenges from various directions is built on three strategic pillars.

The first involves the provision of market intelligence by building up its market research business. “What is important now is to be credible in market advisory. Because then clients come back and ask us what we think, and from that moment on they feel comfortable to strike a deal with us.”

The second pillar is a focus on technological solutions. “We’re not blind, and see that the market is going faster and requires more technology. So we have gone down that path already. We are investing in software which allows us to work faster and provide a much larger picture of the market.”

The third involves building a global reach with regional hubs. “It serves a purpose to be closer to the local markets,” Ravano says, and it helps feed intelligence into Ifchor’s core business of spot and period broking business.

Pictured in their fifth-floor Lausanne office, Ifchor’s founding partners, from left, Riccardo Ravano, Claudio Ceccarelli, Giovanni Calleri and Giuseppe Ravano at the company’s 25th anniversary celebrations in 2002. And where did they go afterwards for the party? This was the party! Quite a contrast with the 40th anniversary celebrations for 170 guests at Lausanne’s elegant Olympic Museum on the shores of Lake Leman. Photo: Ifchor

Ravano remains sceptical about whether direct fixing without brokers will lead to greater transparency. As one of the panellists on the Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk indices, he says: “People sometimes forget how important the indices are. There are hundreds of millions of dollars played over the indices.

“We are investing a lot of money in having desks which are large enough to grab all the possible information to then report the index accurately. It’s because the indices are an objective picture of where the market is. And that is crucial because it gives that credibility that allows people to trade over it.”

Ravano questions whether brokers that do not invest in their desks retain the most accurate information.

“You need to be picky and choosy with the brokers you’re doing business with; they need to be up to the task. We have no problem with that. We need to be competitive, committed, connected to the market. So that’s clearly a fair demand from principals.

“On the other hand, how can you expect, without brokers, to have accurate and objective indices? As brokers, one of our tasks is to find a solution, so in the long run a solution will be found.”

In addition, Ifchor has branched into S&P, tankers and finance.

In S&P, the aim is to have a good boutique shop with a specific angle on certain market sectors.

Three of the four partners at the 40th birthday party. From left, Giuseppe Ravano, Riccardo Ravano and Claudio Ceccarelli, with current chief executive Emanuele Ravano and chief financial officer/chief operating officer Sandro Jelmini. Photo: Ifchor

It is expanding its influence in the tanker sector, opening a desk in Geneva early this year to take advantage of the busy tanker market in Switzerland. Together with an office in Genoa, established in 2010, it takes its tanker team to nine brokers.

“We wanted to establish our name in tankers where it’s a younger venture for us,” Ravano says. “For tankers, it was important to be in Geneva. That is proving a good choice.”

Possibly the most promising venture is the establishment of a financial arm, Helvetic Marine Capital, which will access capital in equity and debt markets.

In an age when simply fixing a ship is not enough, provision of a financial package with a link to S&P and long-term charters in the Ifchor stable is regarded as an encouraging development. It is, says one trader, something that cannot be provided by the one-click freight trading portals. “I’m very enthusiastic [about] that. Clients’ feedback has been great because there are many synergies on what you do with chartering and S&P,” Ravano says.

Ifchor has taken on two finance professionals, Kosmas Theofilopoulos and Regis Caze.

Helvetic Marine Capital is a separate unit with Chinese walls sealing it off from the rest of the business. “We really want to make sure that clients can be handled with discretion. It’s important they can work discreetly. And this is mixed, on their request, with the broking.”

Despite the many changes, the importance of the team still counts. “There is no single man or single winner, there are a team of people here. That is what we are building here with Ifchor.”

Ravano holds dear to the principles his father taught. “Trust and providing an honest service. Still I think those values will stand out in the long run. I’m pretty convinced about that.”

Emanuele Ravano and his wife, Anna. Photo: Sailors' Society

The slippery slope to shipbroking

As a young man, Emanuele Ravano’s passion was skiing. He skiied professionally until he was 21 and was in the running for the Italian team.

“That was a very long time ago,” he says, and his passion for the sport has been eclipsed by the challenges of running the family shipbroking business.

It could have been different. Ravano, who was born in Genoa and schooled in Lausaunne, considered banking. “But it was too imperso

nal for me. In shipping, you can really build relationships that matter.”

His choice of career was helped by belonging to a family with quite a pedigree in the Italian shipping community. “Shipping was always part of my life. My father has a true passion for shipping. He always dragged me around with my brothers to shipping events and talks.”

Two of his brothers — Peo and Giovanni — have prominent roles on the freight desks of trading houses Quadra and Bunge respectively. A third brother is doing a PhD at the University of Geneva, where Emanuele studied international relations.

A short stint at Harvard University in the US was followed by traineeships in trading houses, before “Manu” returned to the family fold 15 years ago to work under senior brokers on the Ifchor capesize desk.

“It’s a great job because you create relationships and you have clients calling you. That’s gratifying: people who have trust in you and call you back and want to know what you think of the market.

“This is something we learnt from my father and his partners. They have never been shy to provide very honest advice on what they thought the market would do. And that, in the long term, gives you credit.”

In the main, he is bullish about all dry bulk sectors.

Capesize rates look fundamentally sustainable in 2018, and he would not be surprised if they hovered above historical levels of $15,000-$17,000 per day. “Why? Simply, supply is not coping with the present demand levels.”

He is optimistic about panamaxes because seaborne demand for grain is growing steadily at 2% or 3% per year. “That is a completely different market behaviour [to the capes]. It’s less abrupt than iron ore and coal could be.”

Grain imports will rise in the coming years as parts of Asia seek more protein in their diets. That will be good for the more diversified panamax/ultramax and supramax segments.

But Ifchor’s positivity for the dry bulk market generally is countered by a wariness about external shocks, be they credit limits in China or the deteriorating geopolitical situation.

After 2018, a big factor is that the improving market will lead to more orders being placed, he says, as newbuilding prices become attractive against secondhand. But there is also uncertainty around regulations, which could be reflected in fewer orders.

“So overall, the market will curve down again in 2020, simply because fundamentals will catch up with reality, although we have to see to what extent, because yard capacity is more limited than in the past.”

Emanuele Ravano in Ifchor's Lausanne office. Photo: Ifchor

‘You can’t just point people at a ship or cargo’

Shipbrokers who hope business will go on the same way it has for generations are deluded, a leading Swiss freight trader warns.

“In the end as a broker, what is it about?” he asks. “Is it about being the first one to call with the cargo? Or wining and dining somebody who you know is going to give you the cargo? I don’t think that’s the model any more. Clearly, it’s about how you add value.”

The observation resonates in an age when dry cargo chartering is being challenged by the rise of direct trading portals. With players such as BHP booking dozens of iron ore cargoes on the internet and extending the system to coal, shipbroking clearly faces a challenge.

Ifchor and some of the top London brokers can see the model is broken and are looking for new ways of doing business. But it does not mean the days when a broker is needed are over. “You can’t just point people at a ship or at a cargo any more. This is not good enough,” Emanuele Ravano says.

His view is that many of the big traders and principals value the information and additional services provided by brokers. “Ifchor doesn’t believe the traditional broking done in the 1970s and 80s is the way going forward. We have embraced change,” he adds.

Ravano thinks the broker can still make a difference in pre-fixing and sometimes post-fixing of ships. Pre-fixing bring traders so much information and intelligence to help them take the right decision. “This is worth much more than the commission, and the good principals out there know it.”

Freight traders are using shipbroking services if they prove to be good, “so it’s a very meritocratic way of working. The procurement and the mining industry might look at it differently, though my argument with them has always been: are you sure you’re not going to dry up on information?”

Ravano cites the fixing of a contract of affreightment before the market rises.

“In the long run they might realise, in talking to a good panel of brokers — and there are very good ones out there — that the percentage they pay for the commission is actually worthwhile.”

Shipbroking, he adds, remains a people-oriented business, with decisions taken by human beings. “An algorithm will not replace the street-smart way of brokers.” Ian Lewis