Corporate pirates and their parrots

© Linda Bucklin

Here’s an op-ed piece from the heart, comparing some of the underhand corporate practices in modern day shipping with a gaudily dressed Long John Silver and his ubiquitous parrot… it’s all about pieces o’ eight. In seriousness, though, this blog, by Flexport chief executive Ryan Peterson on the rumours surrounding the financial viability of K Line, resonates with our recent assessment of the line. That is chiefly that it might look weak in liner terms, but it does boast a diversified shipping portfolio, a reassuring cash balance and access to further sources of cheap debt should they be required – and has an important subtext: do not let the demise of Hanjin and the hysteria it can prompt cloud your judgement. We think Mr Petersen has made a mistake in confusing APL, the carrier acquired by CMA CGM, and APL Logistics, which is now owned by Japanese logistics group Kintetsu, but that does not mean his chief point is invalid. “The sad thing is, all these ‘industry analysts’ are spreading rumours about a public company whose financials are available to all. That means not one of them was capable of analysing financial statements to fact-check their sources, or, just as likely, that doing so would be inconvenient when parroting rumours of a collapse captures so much more attention.”