German ship finance platform Oceanis has hit a big milestone three years after launching.
The Hamburg company’s software gives shipowners access to a pool of 45-plus financiers through a single loan application.
It has now closed $200m of vessel financing transactions since it began operations, and overseen term sheets worth more than $2bn.
The platform has 100 owners on its books and says it has seen a sharp rise in projects submitted for consideration since 2021.
Debt providers include traditional shipping banks, Asian leasing houses and alternative debt funds from across the globe.
Oceanis says term sheets for viable projects are issued within three days.
Co-founder and joint managing director Maximilian Otto said the operation has significantly widened the pool of financing options for the typical shipowner and brought projects to the attention of a bigger selection of debt providers.
“Our optimised processes provide quick access to the market and reliable comparability of available finance. By bringing down lead times, we bring down costs for everyone,” he added.
Erlend Sommerfelt Hauge, another co-founder and managing director, said the devil is in the detail with ship financing.
“Lenders have different preferences and capabilities and the most competitive lender for each project varies along with the project details. Each project typically receives at least two indicative offers, but we always aim for precision and quality over quantity when identifying loan options,” he added.
New services plotted
Oceanis has 10 employees at its Hamburg office.
TradeWinds reported in 2020 that activity was centring on bulkers, container ships and product tankers.
“We are in weekly and daily dialogue with the most active lenders on our platform and pay close attention to their lending appetite,” said Sommerfelt Hauge.
Run by former shipping, banking and software executives, Oceanis will now turn its attention to developing further ship finance support tools.
The third co-founder and managing director, Dennis Nagel, explained it has launched Pythia, an algorithm-based service that accurately predicts the probability of a particular project securing funding.
“We will be adding further services, making Oceanis a valuable hub for the hard-pressed shipping chief financial officers as well as the capital providers,” he added.
