Expansion and a strong year for LNG newbuilding business have helped swell profit at Richard Fulford-Smith’s Affinity (Shipping).
The UK brokerage saw pre-tax profit more than double during 2018 as higher revenue more than offset its rising staff costs, figures show.
Its improved showing was reflected in its chief executive's pay, which was also up sharply from the previous year.
Affinity booked a pre-tax profit of £3.78m ($4.67m) in 2018, an improvement on the £1.84m reported for the previous 12 months.
That came as revenue climbed from £25.5m to nearly £32m year on year.
“We are growing the business, just gently,” Fulford-Smith told TradeWinds.
LNG and newbuildings are known areas of strength for Affinity and last year saw record orders in the sector globally.
“We did pretty well on that,” said Fulford-Smith, who saw his own compensation package rise from £400,000 in 2017 to £822,500 in 2018.
“We have got an orderbook of quite a few — double figures anyway. We have some very nice friends,” he said.
Fulford-Smith added he was happy with the performance of the different teams and offices that contributed to the results.
Believing in people
Staff costs were up from £12.7m to £14.6m year on year, due to a higher head count.
Affinity is now active in London, Oslo, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, France, Australia, the US, Peru, Chile and Uruguay.
“I’m a believer in people,” Fulford-Smith said, suggesting some rivals saw people as statistics.
“I prefer people to be people. It’s one of the things that makes shipping special.
“If you suppress people or clone people or ask them to be speechless wonders, you end up with what shipping does not need.
“You need people, personalities, characters — you need people to speak,” he added.
Affinity’s accounts list increased investment holdings of £903,940 at the end of 2018.
While specific details were not disclosed, they were described as traded on Oslo’s over-the-counter market and the South Korean stock exchange.
The veteran broker also highlighted the need for shipping — an industry famous for its historic resistance to change — to face up to its environmental responsibility.
“Shipping is by nations the sixth biggest destroyer of the planet as we know it in terms of carbon emissions,” he said.
"It’s a disgrace. We are the most awful industry when it comes to that.
“Of course, people defend it and say we move more goods than anybody else, which is absolutely correct — but it does not stop us doing something about it,” he concluded.
