Lloyd's List Awards - Deal of the Year Award - Clarksons Platou

Jennsen, thank you. It's Lloyd's List, thank you to the judges, and thank you to Hugh, the most important judge ever. Say it's the first time an Englishman's been given something from a Welshman for a while. But it's an interesting award for Clarkson's. Clarkson and Plato PLC. We strive as brokers to be service providers to our clients. Part of our mantra is to avoid the press. Our business is making our clients the news, not us, and it's an important position we hold dear. We're also very much a heritage business. 160 years of history pales into insignificance next to Deloitte's list, no, founded in the 1700s, but it's something we hold dear and something we don't give up lightly. We have some very interesting characters in our history. Once Ian Fleming was a very good friend of and based the character of James Bond. Also this week, interestingly, Jeffrey Evans, now Lord Mayor of London elect, a 43-year-old and veteran, I believe, will also carry the flag not just for the City of London globally but for the maritime industry and to raise the prowess of what this industry does to this country. But the custodians of a company to make a decision to bring two heritage brands as Clarkson and Plato together is not made easily, but the aspects of that were so compelling that we had to do it. It's fantastic to be here to see how excited we are that we can actually bring a greater service offering to our clients, and we're going to be really dedicated. And I want to thank all the members of the Clarkson Plato team for their dedication and a certain number of the key generals. I'm delighted here tonight, but I also wanted just a little PS: it's not over yet. Come on England.

Many years before that, when my predecessor left, we had a reformation of the board and did a complete strategic review of the business. And one of the standout targets for us was Plato. Following that time, which is in 2008, both companies embarked on routes into the capital markets to service our clients in how to provide them with debt and equity in the requirements going forward in the marketplace. So an opportunity came up with our Plato where they were looking to acquire UK listed companies and broking companies. They tried with ACM and it didn't really work. They did a pre-sound on an IPO and they went to a number of our investors, and the investor said, 'Well, actually, you're a pretty good fit for someone we already hold, which is Plato. Since we know them pretty well, we like them. Have you spoken to them?' And when the response came back, I don't think Peter was too happy. He jokes about it with me now. He's like, 'Well, what about? I'm here to talk about Plato.' But it planted the seed with Plato as well. And when we sat down together, here and I have known each other close to 30 years, certainly north of 25 years, and we really started to examine what was this fit like. And it's almost like the maps of the world where you see two continents that have divided and they now come back together. It was a really, you know, complementary fit to the two businesses, an extremely compelling business case for both sides. Both groups felt it was equally compelling.

I mean, the part of the strategy around doing this transaction is we know that shipping is a cyclical business, but really we look at shipping as a multi-cyclical business. So right now, that part of the group strategy is that we have the ability to make good revenue in, you know, the LCCs and tankers like we saw. The awards for you were out, they were having great fun in this market. LPG operators having good fun in this market. But many of our clients are in the dry bulk market or in the offshore market. So we have a diversified business, but at all times we look, we run on principle risk-taking organization, so we can deal with our revenue in a different way by striving to grow our book. And that's what we've said in our new reports now for the last six years. We've managed to grow volume in every single business line that we operate. And that's a mantra, a commitment of all the team. Every single man has to deliver into that ethos, and then the markets will come. But we also believe a friend in need is a friend indeed. Absolutely. When it's difficult markets, don't disappear. Step up, offer a service, be there. So that's really the strategy across the board. We have the ability because our strengths in the good markets to assist the markets that aren't actually having such an easy time in the market.