Drewry Launches New Maritime Sector Credit Research Service Offering

Drewry has launched a new credit research service on the global maritime sector.

Drewry Financial Research Services Ltd. (Drewry) today announced the launch of a new credit research service on the global maritime sector.

"Debt capital is a key source of funding for the maritime sector and as regulatory burdens restrict capital availability more companies are expected to tap the debt capital markets in coming years," explained Drewry.

The new offering is noted to include in-depth analysis of the credit instruments on which the corporate capital structure is based, and provides an investment proposition in asset allocation for institutional investors.

The service will initially launch with the analysis of the listed bonds shipping giants A.P. Moller Maersk (Maersk), CMA CGM S.A. (CMA CGM), and Hapag Lloyd AG (Hapag Lloyd), and will later be expanded to cover other maritime sectors including port operators, dry bulk, tanker and gas shipping.

"We believe there is a growing need for objective, independent credit research on the highly complex bond structures within the maritime sector," said Rahul Kapoor, Head - Drewry Financial Research Services.

"The new offering provides an impartial view of both global maritime bonds and listed credit instruments and will help market participants analyse their investments as well as monitor the creditworthiness of counterparties."

Drewry says that, in the context of the current market, the consultancy favours bond issues that lie higher on the risk spectrum with a short duration, characteristics noted to be satisfied by bonds of both CMA CGM and Hapag Lloyd.

"We see downside risk for bonds from the current levels as credit metrics are about to worsen in full-year results and the probability of a rating downgrade is significant as highlighted by the rating agencies," concludes Drewry.