Moore Stephens International News

International accountant and shipping adviser Moore Stephens says the shipping industry must adopt a transparent, proactive approach to corporate governance or else risk exposure to business and reputational damage. Corporate governance in shipping has been in sharp focus recently, particularly following publication of the research by Wells Fargo Securities into Shipping’s Corporate Governance War. Robert Noye-Allen, a partner in the Moore Stephens Governance Risk & Assurance team, says, “Businesses in today’s shipping industry are expected to fully comprehend the implications of inadequate management of conflict of interest arrangements, and to recognise the importance of independent directorship.

A survey by leading accountant Moore Stephens has revealed that over three-quarters of owner-managed businesses (OMBs) in the UK operating in the shipping and transport sector are confident about their prospects for 2016. The survey revealed that, despite facing a number of major challenges and risks, shipping and transport (S&T) OMBs were particularly focused this year on training staff, expanding their UK customer base, investing in new technology and pursuing cost-reduction initiatives. The survey analysed responses from UK-based OMBs, and revealed that 78% of S&T OMBs were confident about the general outlook for 2016, with 71% expecting to hit their revenue targets for the year.

Shipping and offshore maritime sectors must be alert to implications of new U.S. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the United States has issued a lease accounting standard update following the release in January 2016 of an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) dealing with the same subject. Although it had been expected that the FASB and IFRS standards would be identical, there are instead now two standards which, although similar in many respects, contain significant differences.

International shipping adviser Moore Stephens said the UK budget for 2012 contains some encouraging signs for the shipping industry. The government has stated that it will consult later this year on whether to introduce a rule allowing companies with a non-sterling functional currency to compute their capital gains and losses in such functional currency, rather than in sterling, as is currently the case. “This is of particular relevance for UK companies, which own vessels outside the UK tonnage tax regime, either because the company did not elect into tonnage tax, or because the ship does not qualify for tonnage tax - for example, because it is chartered out on a long-term bareboat charter…

Moore Stephens, understands that Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has agreed to re-examine, in consultation with the shipping industry, its earlier intention to unilaterally reinterpret the UK Tonnage Tax rules to the potential detriment of many shipowners. Widely disputed changes based on unspecified ‘legal advice’ were set out in HMRC’s tonnage tax manual in September 2009. These focused in particular on a reinterpretation of the strategic and commercial management tests that are fundamental to qualification for the tonnage tax regime.

Overall confidence levels in the shipping industry dropped for the third successive quarter in the three months ending February 2011, to reach their lowest level for fifteen months, according to the latest survey by leading accountant and shipping adviser Moore Stephens. Over-tonnaging and the uncertainty created by political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa were the dominant themes running throughout the responses to the survey, which also revealed an increase across all categories in the number of respondents who expected finance costs to rise over the coming year.

Shipping accountant Moore Stephens said that, despite the current economic downturn, shipping is still a good business to be in, and that resourceful investors will find opportunities to expand, or to get back into shipping, over the next twelve months. Julian Wilkinson, head of the Moore Stephens shipping team, said, “Shipping enters 2009 with at least one certainty – the good times are over for now. The easy money has dried up, the old ships have been scrapped or are laid up and there are no prospects of markets going up any time soon. But, in a cyclical industry, sensible players make money whichever way the market moves. Writing in the firm’s Bottom Line newsletter…

The latest Shipping Confidence Survey by Moore Stephens has revealed a significant drop in overall confidence levels in the market, and an increased expectation that rates in the tanker, dry bulk and container ship sectors will fall in the next twelve months. On a scale of 1 to 10, the average confidence level reported by respondents was 5.6, compared to 6.8 in the previous survey in June 2008. Confidence levels fell across all sectors and regions and the greater divergence between respondents suggests greater uncertainty across market participants. Ship managers and owners were the most confident at 6.0 and 5.8 respectively, although these were markedly down on the corresponding figures in June.

Shipping accountant Moore Stephens has appointed Gavin Stoddart as a partner in London, with special responsibility for developing the firm's Russian and Ukrainian business. As managing director of Moore Stephens Russia Ltd., Stoddart will focus on expanding the existing network of offices in Moscow, Nakhodka, Sakhalin Island, Vladivostok and Kiev, Ukraine, and expanding the range of services, which include audits and consultancy advice to major clients, particularly on Russian taxation issues. He will be joined by Elena Tikhnenko, a U.S. certified public accountant, who has moved to London from Moore Stephens Dalaudit in Vladivostok. She will work closely with Stoddart, as senior manager of Moore Stephens Russia.

Shipping accountant and business consultant Moore Stephens says that, despite recent publicity to the contrary, Russia is now a better place to do business than it has ever been for small and medium-size enterprises, including shipowners. Writing in the latest issue of The Bottom Line, the newsletter of the Moore Stephens shipping industry group, Gavin Stoddart, managing director of Moore Stephens Russia, says, "The door to international finance and international markets is open, with traffic flowing in both directions. The only passport to success is sound and visible financial structures". Acknowledging that there is still a Russian risk premium on investment capital…