Houlder Sells Holdings In Tanker Broker Panel

Houlder Sells Holdings In Tanker Broker Panel Shipbroker Howard Houlder (Chartering) Ltd. has sold its shareholdings in the London Tanker Broker Panel back to the other five members of the rate-setting group, panel managing director Robert Porter said. "Howard Houlder is no longer a panel member," Porter said. "Houlder said it wished to leave and the other panelists exercised their pre-emption rights to buy the shares back." Porter said he did not know why Houlder had decided to leave the panel - an independent body providing tanker rate/route assessments, for which fees are charged. Houlder had been in negotiations for some time with Capital Shipbrokers Ltd. to sell its shares for approximately $1.1 million, according to other brokers and press reports. A spokesman at Capital said the company could give no comment on the breakdown of negotiations. No one was immediately available at Houlder for comment. Panel member Seascope paid $897,000 pounds for its seat and a place on the Worldscale Association (London) in 1995. "I cannot understand why Houlder would want to leave the panel," one senior shipping source said. In recent times, Houlder has been stronger in the dry bulk shipping business than tanker sector, according to shipping sources. Shipping brokers have been under pressure recently due to poor markets in both the tanker and dry bulk sectors. The London Tanker Brokers' Panel now comprises H. Clarkson, Galbraith's, E.A. Gibson, Seascope and Braemar Shipbrokers.