Maritime & Merchant Bank (M&MB) has upped its lending to tankers and containerships and has turned a quarterly profit, according to its latest report.
The first quarter saw the bank disburse a further $23m to its clients, which brings the its portfolio of disbursed loans to $272m as of 31 March.
It says $11.3m of the loan portfolio has been earmarked as "high risk", but there have been no events of default.
A year ago, all of the bank's lending had been designated as "moderate risk", the report shows.
The bank posted a net profit of $2.2m after tax, compared to $320,663 in the same period last year.
Lending by segment
M&MB has trebled its financing of tankers over the past year, with lending to the sector totalling $120.6m, or 44% of its committed portfolio as of 31 March.
A year ago, the value of M&MB's tanker financing stood at $39.6m, which was then 32% of its portfolio.
Containerships, too, have received a influx of funding from the Oslo-based bank, which offers first-priority lending to small and medium-sized shipowners.
The value of M&MB's boxship loans has grown from $13.6m at the end of the first quarter 2018 to $69.1m at the same point this year, which is 25% of its committed portfolio.
M&MB is still offering financing for bulk carriers, but has proportionally reduced its exposure to the segment by 20% since the end of March last year.
The value of M&MB's bulker loans increased by $11.3m over the 12-month period to $67m, which is 25% of the bank's book.
Gas ships appear to have fallen out of favour and M&MB has cut its lending to the sector by around $8m over the 12 months.
Financing for gas vessels stood at just $6.8m at the end of the first quarter, which is equivalent to just 3% of the bank's disbursed loan portfolio, down from 12% a year ago.
Outlook
"In total, we expect a continued high activity level for investments in the maritime sector both domestically and abroad, and consequently, a steady inflow of new enquiries," the bank said of the future.
In the meantime, M&MB said it is in the process of strengthening its client relationship department, as well as its know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) processes.
"Traditional shipowners, different financial investor constellations, joint ventures between different capital sources and management environments; our universe of customers is expanding," M&MB said.
