Over the past decade, more than two dozen private credit funds have entered the ship finance market. The thesis is well established: as commercial banks increasingly focus their balance sheets and attention on larger clients and transactions, non-bank lenders have stepped in to provide small and mid-sized shipowners, which still represent the vast majority of the shipowning community, with fast, flexible, and reliable capital.

The last five years have seen a steady flow of acquisitions in the North American maritime market via M&A transactions, with a handful of key buyers making bolt-on acquisitions to expand and diversify their maritime holdings.

Greek shipowners have traveled far and wide to find sources of capital in order to build fleets and to become the world’s largest nation group in terms of vessel ownership.