It’s still “coming out of warm layup,” but New York-based lender CIT Bank is back to doing shipping loans in an evolving market for ship finance.
That assessment came from newly hired Evan Cohen, the managing director and group head of maritime finance for CIT as he addressed the 25th annual joint shipping conference of the Hellenic-American/Norwegian American chambers of commerce this morning in Manhattan.
The layup analogy comes in reference to what is essentially CIT’s third entry to the ship-finance market, which has picked up steam since the lender hired Cohen, a long-time DVB banker, last November.
“We’re focussing on classic senior debt, partnering with existing clients and other major ship-finance banks out there,” Cohen told fellow members on a finance panel.
“We’ll look at a standard 50% to 60% (loan to valuation) on anything that’s not too big, too small and not offshore.”
CIT’s return comes at a time when others on the finance panel said ample ship-finance capital remains available, just in different forms than owners have gotten used to over the years.
Both Tor Ivar Hansen of DNB Markets and Rajbir Talwar of ABN AMRO said shipowners should understand that regulatory pressures reduce the amount of traditional ship finance available to them.
They urged owners to get creative and incorporate alternative financing sources, including those such as those represented by Marina Tzoutzouraki and Dagfinn Lunde, partners in the digitally-oriented eShipfinance.com.
Tzoutzouraki also took part in the panel, moderated by Norton Rose Fulbright partner Brian Devine.
