“You will not be surprised if I say that it is outrageously hilarious that something that was created almost three centuries ago as a safe haven for the protection of shipbrokers is now set to become the vehicle that will make shipbroking obsolete.”
Retired broker Giorgio Martini gives the Baltic both barrels over its sale to SGX. We doubt they’re laughing at the exchange.
“Generations of Baltic members must be rolling over in their graves.”
Martini again, invoking the appalled spirits of brokers past.
“I am somehow astonished that some put the immediate benefit of selling their shares ahead of their long term interest, but I would be even more if it happened that those who have no asset at stake accepted terms that look like a subscription to their own deferred funeral.”
Martini urges panelists to come together to oppose what he sees as the death of shipbroking.
Martini: Baltic SGX deal is 'funeral' for shipbroking
“It would make no sense to us to undertake any activities that would jeopardise this sense of mutual accountability.”
But Michael Syn, SGX head of derivatives, says no relationships will be jeopardised in the takeover.
“The best price includes that whole pile of softer issues. Until we get that right, we won’t have a final price. I promise you I will squeeze every last penny out of them for you but it is about getting the right deal for the business going forward.”
Baltic chairman Guy Campbell is going to drive a tough bargain.
SGX sweetens deal for Baltic panelists
“The medicine is not going to be easy to take. Zero supply growth has been achieved only three times in recent history, during the 1980s and 1990s. The task ahead of us is huge and must be sustained year after year.”
Philippe Louis-Dreyfus says intensive and prolonged bulker scrapping is just what the doctor ordered.
Dry red run can end by 2019, says Louis-Dreyfus
“We can make money at the bottom of the market. That’s the big advantage of this business: in bad times you don’t lose money and in good times you make money.”
Harry Vafias on the LPG market. Try telling that to bulker and offshore ship owners.
Only way is up for LPG operator as outfit keeps scoring profits
“Our banks know our history, they know the family, they trust us.”
Polys-Hajioannou rehashes the old ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ argument.
Safe Bulkers determined to maintain listing status
“We have never sold something from ourselves to the company or from the company to ourselves.”
Aristides Pittas disdains related-party deals.
“We think that even if it’s done at a fair rate, it may be perceived as it was not.”
And that is why.
“Right now, being public is just a cost, it’s not a benefit. But we’re pretty sure the market will come back.”
Pittas again, on the value of staying public over the long-term.
“We need to save the company first, then think about our position.”
Premuda managing director Stefano Rosina has his priorities in the right order.
