Singapore: Shipbroking’s consolidation era continues with today being the first day of trading for Howe Robinson Partners, the merged entity between Icap Shipping and Howe Robinson.
Other broking mergers have taken place between Braemar and ACM as well as between Clarkson and RS Platou.
Howe Robinson Partners is headquartered in Singapore and has 240 staff around the world including offices in London, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Gibraltar, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Howe Robinson’s head Peter Kerr-Dineen is the new chairman of the company.
The news comes a day after broker E A Gibson sealed a management buyout from its former parent Hunting.
Gibson took a swipe at rivals, noting in a release yesterday: “There are repeated claims that to provide a quality service, a prerequisite is to follow the current fashion of being one of the largest companies, involved in all aspects of shipping and its peripheral activities. We beg to differ and believe that the depth and quality of service to our clients is paramount and best served when the focus of the company is the core shipbroking activity.”
