Singapore: A venture capital, private equity fund is looking at investing in shipping, albeit only green ships.
Jotdeep Singh, a director at Vigor Capital and a speaker at Tuesday’s Eco-Dollars Business Breakfast organized by Asia Shipping Media, the parent of this site, said that shipping was a late entrant to the energy efficiency drive but that there were some attractive investments to be had in the sector.
“I think shipping is getting very interesting,” he told the assembled shipowners at the Fullerton Hotel breakfast, sponsored by Lloyd's Register and Ideocean.
“There will be investment opportunities for people like us,” Singh said.
Vigor has a track record in investing in renewable energies plus other industries such as steel, sugar and latterly aviation. Singh’s background includes time as the regional head for renewables at Rabobank.
“Shipping will be one of the key areas for investment for us and we will try and bring our experience from investing in other sectors in terms of how we assess viability,” he said.
When pressed as to what green means for shipping, Singh said: “As an investor the first thing we look at is green, but of course we have to check it has to be financially viable. We look for ships that consume less fuel. Fuel is the main thing we look for. We are going to focus on the energy use of ships to begin with.” In terms of ship investments, Singh said his firm would be looking at, “Anything that significantly reduces fuel use and pays for itself so anything like 10% or more efficiency that is proven and reliable.”
He did, however, admit concerns about the severe overcapacity in the industry. [25/10/12]
