Page 13: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q2 2014)

12 14

Managing Risk: the Bottom Line

A different variation on the portfolio approach, with implicit management of risk, can be found in Vancouver, at

Teekay Corporation and its related com- panies. The corporate parent is on a path towards becoming an asset light holding company; separate subsidiaries (two of which are MLPs, where vessels are on long contracts) operate in the gas tanker, offshore oil, and conventional tanker seg- ments. A newly launched arm, listed in the Norwegian market, will specialize in the admittedly risky strategy of buying attractively priced tankers and fl ipping them when the market goes up. The high- ly respected Teekay has therefore con- tained different risks in different silos – a simple yet seemingly powerful strategy.

Further dimensions of risk, sometimes learned the hard way, were enumerated by Jake Storey, who is Risk Manager at

Gearbulk, an international drybulk ship- ping company based outside London,

U.K. Storey, with a long history in the management and the owning sides, told

Maritime Professional in May, “What- ever the market, it is imperative the ef- fective counterparty risk is performed.

Not just for legal compliance, but for commercial reasons as well. There are several companies that can support ves- sel owners and operators with counter- party risk assessment. However, in addi- tion, the shipping industry group called the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) supports companies in the maritime industry to address the corrup- tion and compliance challenges that can arise with shipping,”

Good lessons indeed.

The Author

Barry Parker, bdp1 Consulting Ltd provides strategic and tactical support, including analytics and communications, to businesses across the maritime spectrum.

The company can be found online at: www.conconnect.com 1-17 Q2 MP2014.indd 13 5/16/2014 11:42:02 AM