The United States has become the leading place for shipping companies to raise capital through stock offerings in recent years.
According to figures provided by Nasdaq, 20 shipping companies have raised $3.9 billion in initial public stock offerings, and 29 shipping companies have raised $2.6 billion in secondary offerings since 2005, more than half the money raised through stock exchanges around the world.
Investors who have bought those shares have done well. Nasdaq said that since 2005 shipping IPOs have appreciated by more than 50 percent.
During a press conference at the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York Wednesday, several shipping executives said their industry has overcome a past tendency toward secrecy, and embraced the equity markets as a way to fund fleet expansions.
"I think we have only touched the tip of the iceberg," said Paul Durham, chief financial officer of the tanker company Tsaksos Energy Navigation Co. There are money managers who are unfamiliar with the shipping industry and control funds that might be invested in the market, he added.
Durham, John McCown, chief executive of the U.S mainland-Puerto Rico carrier Trailer Bridge Inc., and Stamatis N. Tsantanis, CFO of Top Tankers Inc. helped ring the closing bell at Nasdaq and spoke at an event timed to coincide with a ship finance conference being held this week by Marine Money magazine.
"By my count there were some 20 firms that had two or more people -- that's off the charts. It goes toward the sector's appeal with the investment community," said McCown of the conference.
Tsantanis said while there are many Greek shipping companies still operating with traditional one-ship owner structures, others have decided to raise money in the public markets in order to grow, even though there is sometimes "a big cultural shock when they see what kind of requirements there are."
Top Tankers' IPO was one of the factors in allowing it to expand its fleet from seven to 27 ships, he said.
Durham said going public in the United States not only gives companies access to a big pool of investment capital, but also "gives clean license to raise capital, debt especially, in other parts of the world" because of the public disclosure of their finances that shipping companies must make.
Factors driving the increased number of public shipping companies include "a changing of the generation, youth that have been globally educated and are comfortable with concept of transparency and talking about business in a way that previous generations were not," said Jim Lawrence, chairman of Marine Money.
Many of these new shipping executives have global ambitions, he noted, and they have the ability to tap into the burgeoning markets in China, India and Russia.
"When our children look back 25 years from now they are going to say this is truly the golden age of shipping," he said.
Is the boom of the past few years likely to continue?
"We are optimistic the good period will continue, certainly this year and probably through most of next year," Durham said. "I always use this expression that we hit Everest in 2004, but we are still well in the Himalayas. We don't see signs of a large rift or depression for some time."
China and India are driving freight volumes and rates, he said, and their citizens consume a fraction of the oil used by more developed countries. The Chinese consume about 1.5 barrels of oil each year per person, compared to an average of 26-27 barrels in the United States and 16-17 in Europe and Japan.
Durham said there is some concern that shipowners may over-order vessels. But Tsantanis also noted many ships -- as much as 30 percent of the world fleet -- will be retired by 2010. Many are being phased out because of regulations under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships (MARPOL).
"On the container side you have the same sort of long term growth," McCown said.
Durham said that tanker companies will increasingly have to compete with ships owned by the Chinese government.