Taiwan's Chailease International Financial Services has taken the step from financial shipowning into operating its own vessels in-house to capitalise on hot bulk markets.
Chinese and Taiwanese commercial sources told TradeWinds the Taipei-based lessor and lender is in the market for secondhand dry bulk assets.
The move is said to be a long-planned one after Chailease recruited Taiwanese shipping figure Robert Tsai as maritime business advisor.
Tsai is the former managing director of local shipowner Today Makes Tomorrow (TMT), serving first as right-hand man of Su Ching Wun, who founded it as Taiwan Maritime Transport, and later of his controversial heir Nobu Su.
Taiwanese shipping sources told TradeWinds that over the past year or more, Tsai has been holding weekly briefings for Chailease staff in preparation for an expansion in the sector. Tsai could not immediately be reached for comment.
For the present, Chailease has set up a three-man combined sale-and-purchase and chartering desk and taken over commercial operations of two panamaxes previously on charter to client Kuang Ming, the bulker subsidiary of Taiwan's Yang Ming Marine Group. Technical management is with U-Ming Marine Transport.
As further ships come off bareboat charters to clients, one market observer told TradeWinds she believes Chailease is likely to build up its dry bulk fleet rather than seek new charterers for the ships or dispose of them in the secondhand market.
Some sources believe Chailease could be the buyer of Nissen Kaiun's 80,600-dwt Navios Marco Polo (built 2011), reported sold this month for $22m, post-special survey, to an unknown Taiwanese buyer.
But the company's initial self-operated fleet consists of two veterans, the 77,700-dwt Chailease Blossom (ex-YM Rightness, built 2004) and 76,600-dwt Chailease Glory (ex-Medi Taipei, built 2003).
A corporate spokesman was unwilling to comment on Chailease's activities in shipping.
Chailease, Taiwan's biggest lease finance company, is listed on the Taiwan stock exchange. According to a company social media account, it has financed some 90 ships and has a $400m shipping portfolio, and it advertises its willingness to finance even veteran tonnage of 20 years and more.
Several Taiwanese banks have shipping exposure in their leasing and mortgage portfolios, but most are conservative organisations that stick to domestic clients. Some also have mixed feelings about shipping booms thanks to ill-fated deals in support of the Nobu Su-era TMT.
But Chailease courts shipping clients both foreign and domestic.
In leasing deals as well as mortgage-based lending facilities, it has backed international shipowners including Stathis Topouzoglou's First Ship Lease Trust, Turkey's Besiktas Group, low-key London bulker owner Anglo International and New York-listed Castor Maritime and Global Ship Lease.
Chailease has not shied away from Chinese clients or collaboration with mainland financiers.
In one unusual deal, TradeWinds reported that Chailease went together with mainland CMB Financial Leasing to finance a former Russian aircraft carrier, the 41,370-loaded displacement tonne Kiev (built 1975, decommissioned 1993), for use in a Chinese maritime-themed amusement park.
Chailease is controlled by Taiwanese billionaire Andre Koo. Together with Koo family-controlled CTBC Bank, Taiwan's largest private bank, and investment bank China Development Financial Holding, Chailese is part of a business empire started more than a century ago.
The family has had close ties to governments ranging from the Qing dynasty to Imperial Japan to Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist Party and in recent years has been closely tied to financing the modern development of mainland China.
Its growth strategy has targeted niche industries and small and medium-sized clients, as well as traditional leasing markets such as aviation, shipping, and industrial equipment.
