Shipping investments are a form of alternative investment into an asset related to worldwide shipping. This could be into ships themselves, or a related asset such as shipping container, with the expectation of capital appreciation, dividends, and/or interest earnings.
Shipping investment has a long history and led to development to stock exchanges and insurance. In the 1600s Dutch ships would travel to the East Indies for spices and other goods. These voyages were risky and so Captains would seek investors to share the risk for a percentage of the profit on return. This was an early investments in shipping by those investors. Eventually, shipping companies formed such as the Dutch East India Company to help spread the risk and increase profits. [1]
Some of the characteristics of shipping investments may include:
Investment in ships involves purchasing or leasing new or second-hand vessels and either operating them directly or chartering them to other operators. Investors seek either profits generated from shipping fees, capital appreciation of the vessels themselves, or both. Due to the high capital commitments involved, ship investment has tended to be limited to ultra high net worth individuals and syndicates.
In the UK, investments in cargo ships can qualify for the Enterprise Investment Scheme, making it possible for individual investors to access ship ownership as an asset class. [2]
Investment in shipping containers involves purchasing a container and having an external company manage and lease the containers to merchants. Investors are often promised high rates of return based on purportedly growing demand from cargo ships preferring to lease containers instead of buying them. The Freightos Baltic Index is an example of an index that is published daily showing the global container freight rates.
The industry is known to have been targeted by scams, particularly in the form of Ponzi schemes. [3] [4]
A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, this type of scheme misleads investors by either falsely suggesting that profits are derived from legitimate business activities, or by exaggerating the extent and profitability of the legitimate business activities, leveraging new investments to fabricate or supplement these profits. A Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of a sustainable business as long as investors continue to contribute new funds, and as long as most of the investors do not demand full repayment or lose faith in the non-existent assets they are purported to own.
Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources to achieve later benefits". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broader viewpoint, an investment can be defined as "to tailor the pattern of expenditure and receipt of resources to optimise the desirable patterns of these flows". When expenditures and receipts are defined in terms of money, then the net monetary receipt in a time period is termed cash flow, while money received in a series of several time periods is termed cash flow stream.
Philatelic investment is investment in collectible postage stamps for the purpose of realizing a profit. Philatelic investment was popular during the 1970s but then fell out of favour following a speculative bubble and prices of rare stamps took many years to recover.
The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is a series of UK tax reliefs launched in 1994 in succession to the Business Expansion Scheme. It is designed to encourage investments in small unquoted companies carrying on a qualifying trade in the United Kingdom.
Drop shipping is a form of retail business in which the seller accepts customer orders without keeping stock on hand. Instead, in a form of supply chain management, the seller transfers the orders and their shipment details either to the manufacturer, a wholesaler, another retailer, or a fulfillment house, which then ships the goods directly to the customer.
Shipbroking is a financial service, which forms part of the global shipping industry. Shipbrokers are specialist intermediaries/negotiators between shipowners and charterers who use ships to transport cargo, or between buyers and sellers of vessels.
A stock fund, or equity fund, is a fund that invests in stocks, also called equity securities. Stock funds can be contrasted with bond funds and money funds. Fund assets are typically mainly in stock, with some amount of cash, which is generally quite small, as opposed to bonds, notes, or other securities. This may be a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund. The objective of an equity fund is long-term growth through capital gains, although historically dividends have also been an important source of total return. Specific equity funds may focus on a certain sector of the market or may be geared toward a certain level of risk.
Social venture capital is a form of investment funding that is usually funded by a group of social venture capitalists or an impact investor to provide seed-funding investment, usually in a for-profit social enterprise, in return to achieve an outsized gain in financial return while delivering social impact to the world. There are various organizations, such as Venture Philanthropy (VP) companies and nonprofit organizations, that deploy a simple venture capital strategy model to fund nonprofit events, social enterprises, or activities that deliver a high social impact or a strong social causes for their existence. There are also regionally focused organizations that target a specific region of the world, to help build and support the local community in a social cause.
Ceres Hellenic Enterprises is a large traditional Greek ship management company based in London. It was founded by George Livanos in 1949, but family shipping interests in fact date back to 1824. It is currently run by Peter G. Livanos.
Real estate investing involves the purchase, management and sale or rental of real estate for profit. Someone who actively or passively invests in real estate is called a real estate entrepreneur or a real estate investor. In contrast, real estate development is building, improving or renovating real estate.
Leaseback, short for "sale-and-leaseback", is a financial transaction in which one sells an asset and leases it back for the long term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it. The transaction is generally done for fixed assets, notably real estate, as well as for durable and capital goods such as airplanes and trains. The concept can also be applied by national governments to territorial assets; prior to the Falklands War, the government of the United Kingdom proposed a leaseback arrangement whereby the Falklands Islands would be transferred to Argentina, with a 99-year leaseback period, and a similar arrangement, also for 99 years, had been in place prior to the handover of Hong Kong to mainland China. Leaseback arrangements are usually employed because they confer financing, accounting or taxation benefits.
An alternative investment, also known as an alternative asset or alternative investment fund (AIF), is an investment in any asset class excluding capital stocks, bonds, and cash. The term is a relatively loose one and includes tangible assets such as precious metals, collectibles and some financial assets such as real estate, commodities, private equity, distressed securities, hedge funds, exchange funds, carbon credits, venture capital, film production, financial derivatives, cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, and Tax Receivable Agreements. Investments in real estate, forestry and shipping are also often termed "alternative" despite the ancient use of such real assets to enhance and preserve wealth. Alternative investments are to be contrasted with traditional investments.
China Shipping Group Company, Limited, formerly China Shipping (Group) Company, is a former Chinese state-owned shipping conglomerate. It is now one of the intermediate holding companies for another Chinese state-owned conglomerate, China COSCO Shipping, which was formed by a merger of China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) and China Shipping Group by the creation of a new parent company for the two conglomerates.
An investment rating of a real estate property measures the property’s risk-adjusted returns, relative to a completely risk-free asset. Mathematically, a property’s investment rating is the return a risk-free asset would have to yield to be termed as good an investment as the property whose rating is being calculated.
CSAV is a Chilean shipping company that is currently the largest company of its type in Latin America and also one of the oldest ones, having been founded in 1872.
The international shipping industry can be divided into four closely related shipping markets, each trading in a different commodity: the freight market, the sale and purchase market, the newbuilding market and the demolition market. These four markets are linked by cash flow and push the market traders in the direction they want.
Libra Group is a privately held international holding company operating in a variety of industries. Its 20 operating entities include businesses across six continents, in six sectors: Aerospace, renewable energy, hotels and hospitality services, real estate, maritime, and diversified investments.
An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages include an ability to:
In finance, the notion of traditional investments refers to putting money into well-known assets with the expectation of capital appreciation, dividends, and interest earnings. Traditional investments are to be contrasted with alternative investments.
China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, abbreviated as COSCO Shipping, is a Chinese state-owned multinational conglomerate headquartered in Shanghai. The group is focused on marine transportation services. COSCO Shipping was established in January 2016 by the merger of COSCO Group and China Shipping Group.