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Shipping finance experts from law firm Stephenson Harwood have published the fourth edition of the leading industry text, Shipping Finance: A Practical Handbook.
Shipping Finance includes an analysis of ship mortgage terms and conditions, and mortgagee rights across the main maritime jurisdictions. It provides an extensive discussion of the procedure and documentation for registering ships on a country-by-country basis, with detailed advice from local experts.
Since the third edition was published twelve years ago, there has been a significant amount of change in the shipping market; the latest edition explores both the developments and their implications. By drawing on the insights and experience of many of the Stephenson Harwood international ship finance team and experts in other jurisdictions and shipping professions, this book brings together perspectives from leading specialists across the industry.
Chapters include: shipping finance from a banker’s perspective; the financing of second-hand vessels; the financing of newbuildings; assignments of insurances and earnings, guarantees, indemnities, charges, debentures and other security relied upon by financiers; the sale and purchase of second-hand vessels; the role of insurance in shipping and ship financing; Islamic finance; Chinese leasing; and restructuring.
The book, which contains more than 600 pages of fully revised and updated material, has been written to be used as a reference tool for anyone involved in shipping finance, including shipowners, financiers and lawyers.
About the authors
Elton Chan
Partner, Stephenson Harwood
Elton Chan is a partner in the finance group of Stephenson Harwood in Hong Kong. He holds bachelor degrees in law and science, and has specialised in shipping finance and corporate lending for over 11 years while based in Hong Kong.
In the shipping sector, Elton has led Stephenson Harwood teams for a variety of institutions covering a broad range of matters. This has included acting for shipowners and financiers in negotiating and reviewing shipbuilding contracts and refund guarantees and in all other aspects of ship finance transactions, including conventional debt financing, finance and operating leases and distressed asset sales and investments.
In the corporate lending sector, Elton has acted for both lenders and borrowers on a wide range of corporate lending and structured finance matters, including syndicated lending, crossborder acquisition finance, securities-backed margin financing, repo transactions and real estate financing with complex investor structures.
Julie Clegg
Partner, Stephenson Harwood LLP
Julie is a partner in the ship finance department of Stephenson Harwood in London.
Specialising in ship financing, Julie has extensive experience of advising lenders and borrowers on a variety of transactions and in a variety of sectors. She produces and negotiates sophisticated documentation and structures to reflect the increasing corporatisation of ship financing and the innovative financing techniques now being used.
Julie’s experience has been gained over a number of years through her involvement in various parts of the shipping cycle. She acts for lenders and borrowers on everything from complex cross-border financial transactions to simple ship sales and purchases in relation to all vessel types. Julie’s particular focus is on the cruise sector.
James Foley-Comer
Senior associate, Stephenson Harwood LLP
James is a senior associate in the ship finance group of Stephenson Harwood in London. He specialises in shipping finance and has extensive experience advising banks and other financial institutions and major international shipowners on a variety of complex cross-border financing arrangements. In particular, James’s practice includes acting on syndicated and bilateral debt transactions, ship leasings and restructurings and ship sale and purchases. He also has a particular focus in the yachting and superyachting market and in recent years has worked on a number of financing structures and acquisitions in this sector.
Danaë Hosek-Ugolini
Consultant, Stephenson Harwood LLP
Danaë works as a consultant professional support lawyer for the ship finance team of Stephenson Harwood.
After studying law in the University of Panthéon-Assas in Paris and at the University of Oxford, she trained and qualified as a solicitor with Stephenson Harwood where she worked as an associate in the finance department for almost nine years. She became a professional support lawyer specialising in ship finance in 2016.
Danaë has worked on various types of ship financings (commercial loans, ECA-backed loans and finance leasing), restructurings and shipbuilding and sale and purchase transactions.
Since becoming a consultant, Danaë has been supporting the ship finance team with legal training (both internal and for clients) and research, kept the team up-to-date on relevant legal developments, drafted documentation and guidance notes and been responsible for knowledge management relating to ship finance.
Peter Illingworth
Managing director, Deutsche Bank AG, Singapore
Peter Illingworth has more than 25 years’ experience in banking, mostly specialised in shipping finance. He started his career in Calcutta, India with ANZ Investment Bank, before returning to London and moving to Kleinwort Benson and then Long Term Credit Bank of Japan (LTCB), where he was the head of Shipping Finance. He transferred to DVB Bank in 1998 when it acquired the LTCB transportation business, and held a series of senior roles there including head of Shipping, head of Risk Management and managing director Crude and LNG. In 2014 he joined Deutsche Bank, where he was responsible for Deutsche’s shipping industry corporate and investment banking franchise in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has a first class degree in English Literature from Pembroke College, Cambridge University.
Nijoe Joseph
Partner, Stephenson Harwood Middle East LLP
Nijoe Joseph is a partner in the finance department of Stephenson Harwood. He holds an LLM in International Commercial & Business Law, and has specialised in transport and corporate finance projects for over 13 years while based in Dubai and Bangalore.
Nijoe’s experience in the Middle East consists of portfolio (maritime and aviation) acquisitions and disposals, complex loan (bilateral and syndicated) financings, Islamic financings and operating and finance leasing transactions. He advises all major national and international lenders, investors, lessors, owners and operators around the world on financing structures involving the maritime, aviation, energy and power generation industries.
Prior to joining Stephenson Harwood, Nijoe was the legal advisor to the maritime department of the Department of Transport for the Government of Abu Dhabi. He is also a frequent guest speaker at the Hamburg School of Business Administration, Maritime MBA course, teaching students business related issues regarding Islamic finance in the shipping industry.
Ian Mace
Partner, Stephenson Harwood LLP
Ian Mace is a partner and the head of the ship finance team at Stephenson Harwood.
Ian’s career has seen him advise banks, owners, builders, private equity groups and funds in respect of a broad spectrum of ship finance matters including complex syndicated loan facilities, leasing structures, Islamic finance structures, vessel acquisitions and sales, sellers’ credit arrangements and equity investments.
Ian has also advised on a significant number of high profile restructurings involving loan facilities with multiple groups of lenders and shipping groups that are the subject of insolvency proceedings, as well as on enforcement action through vessel arrests and sales and the enforcement of shares charges.
Dora Mace-Kokota
Partner, Stephenson Harwood LLP
Dora is a partner in the ship finance team of Stephenson Harwood in London. She holds an LLB in Law and an LLM in International and European, Corporate and Commercial Law.
An asset finance expert with a particular focus on the shipping sector, Dora is well known for the breadth and depth of her skills in relation to international financing and restructuring matters.
Her specialism is ship (including offshore) finance, including ECA-backed finance transactions, sale and purchase, leasing, joint ventures, shipbuilding contracts, ship registration matters, secondary trade transactions and restructuring.
She acts for a broad range of international banks and other financial institutions, including export credit agencies, as well as for major shipowners and shipyards in relation to all types of vessels (LNG carriers, cargo vessels, containerships, chemical tankers, VLCCs, yachts and cruise ships). She has particular experience in Europe and Asia.
Keith R McRae
Chartered banker, MCIBS
Keith is a career banker with over 25 years’ ship finance experience. He has held senior positions in several major ship finance institutions, including RBS, Piraeus, Den Norske Bank, London, where he was executive director, and DVB Bank, where he worked on establishing the London portfolio, and a number of product development projects. After moving to HBOS in Edinburgh to work on high leverage projects, he returned to DVB in 2008 to head its global asset recovery operation. This department subsequently formed a key element when DVB established its comprehensive restructuring and recovery team.
Latterly, Keith worked with LXM Finance, London, focusing on managing distressed loan portfolios for third party clients.
Throughout his career, Keith has managed many restructuring and asset recovery projects and has extensive experience in this field.
He has recently stepped back from working full time and now privately advises on restructuring and recovery projects.
Peter Mellett
Managing director, BankServe Insurance Services Ltd
Peter Mellett is managing director of BankServe Insurance Services and has been involved in marine insurance as a broker for 39 years, with experience in all types of claims work. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute, has lectured on marine underwriting and for three years was the senior marine claims examiner for the Chartered Insurance Institute.
Since 1996 Peter has specialised in acting for ship finance institutions with particular emphasis on arranging contingent insurance protection for Mortgagees and advising on insurance issues during the workout process. Peter specialises in assisting with disputed claims under owners’ policies and has been involved in over 80 Mortgagees Interest Insurance (MII) claims during that time, having recently collected the largest MII claim that has been made.
Sheila Obhrai
Senior associate, Stephenson Harwood LLP
Sheila Obhrai is a senior associate in the Ship Finance department at Stephenson Harwood in London. She is a ship finance expert specialising in advising lenders and owners on ship and related project financings.
Sheila is particularly known for her work on advising international banks and other financial institutions on a number of high profile complex syndicated transactions, including in respect of multicurrency revolving facilities for large chemical tanker fleet financings, term loan ECA backed financings for tankers and cruise ships and award winning dual ECA backed financings for cruise ships. She has acted for agent banks on numerous financings for VLCCs, chemical tankers, LNG carriers, general cargo vessels, cruise and container ships as well as containers.
Jonathan Ward
Partner, Stephenson Harwood LLP
Jonathan is a ship finance expert with a focus on complex, cross-border transactions and restructurings in shipping. He has extensive experience of ship finance and commercial shipping matters including complex loan financings, operating and finance leasing, sale and purchase, shipbuilding and construction contracts and corporate acquisitions.
Jonathan advises on ‘big ticket’ asset finance transactions worldwide. He represents a broad range of financial institutions (including export credit agencies), major international shipowners and shipyards worldwide and has particular experience in Europe and the Far East.
In recent years Jonathan has advised lenders on a number of significant Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases as well as on the major restructurings of Torm, Genco and Maritime Equity Partners.
About Stephenson Harwood LLP
Stephenson Harwood is a law firm with over 1000 people worldwide, including more than 170 partners. Our people are committed to achieving the goals of our clients – listed and private companies, institutions and individuals.
Our headquarters are in London, with 10 offices across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In addition we have forged close ties with other high quality law firms. This diverse mix of expertise and culture results in a combination of deep local insight and the capability to provide a seamless international service.
