BDO / Moore Stephens merger strengthens shipping presence

The merger between leading accountants and advisers BDO LLP and Moore Stephens LLP in London was completed earlier this month.

Clients of the merged firm, BDO, will have access to offices in over 160 countries with a presence in every major shipping location in the world.

Michael Simms, Partner and Head, Shipping & Transport at BDO, says: “Both BDO and Moore Stephens LLP have for many years been leading accountants and advisers to the shipping and transport sector. We are confident our clients will now benefit greatly from having access to the combined resources of the two firms.

“The merger enables us to deliver the ever-increasing range and depth of solutions demanded by our clients, who can expect the same high-quality, industry-leading service to which they have become accustomed.”

The BDO Shipping & Transport team has extensive experience delivering accountancy, tax and advisory services to the sector worldwide. BDO delivers key information and insights to the shipping community, including the annual OpCost report, the quarterly Shipping Confidence Survey and a host of thought leadership on topical issues, such as regulatory developments and market conditions. https://www.bdo.co.uk/en-gb/industries/shipping-and-transport


Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP provides integrated advice and solutions to help businesses navigate a changing world.

Our clients are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high-growth businesses that fuel the economy.

We share our clients’ ambitions and their entrepreneurial mind-set. We have the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise to help them succeed.

BDO LLP
BDO LLP operates in 17 locations across the UK, employing nearly 5,000 people offering tax, audit and assurance, and a range of advisory services. BDO LLP has underlying revenues of £590m and is the UK member firm of the BDO international network.

BDO’s global network
The BDO global network provides business advisory services in 162 countries, with 80,000 people working out of 1,600 offices worldwide. It has revenues of $9bn.

Press office:
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Energy and marine propel RINA international growth

Expanding international testing, inspection, certification and consulting engineering group RINA has grown strongly during 2014, propelled by an upturn in marine, acquisition in the energy sector and international diversification. Turnover for 2014 grew 13 per cent to Euro 333 million. EBITDA (adjusted) grew to Euro 37.7m.

Ugo Salerno, Chairman and CEO of RINA S.p.A., says, “2014 was an important year for RINA. We were not only able to seize opportunities for new business around the world such as major development projects in Egypt and Turkmenistan, but we were also able to take advantage of signs of recovery in shipping and opportunities in energy. We now look forward with optimism because our spirit of innovation, our deep research and strong competences give us a platform for success. The hard work of our people, their talent for constantly reinventing themselves to meet the market needs and their ability to cross frontiers and feel at home everywhere underpin RINA’s development.”

Results for RINA’s Energy business line stood out in 2014, growing 23 per cent thanks to the consolidation of the acquisition of materials specialist CSM (Centro Sviluppo Materiali) and outstanding growth in countries such as Indonesia and Brazil.

Floating offshore units have a specific focus within RINA. They include offshore support vessels, mobile drilling rigs, offshore field construction units, oil and gas import and export offshore terminals and floating production and storage units. Class and class related specialist services to this sector grew throughout 2014, totalling at the year’s end about 1.45m GT and 320 units in operation or ongoing new building and conversion projects.

The Marine business grew 5 per cent. RINA Services, the group company which delivers ship classification and certification ended the year with a classed fleet of 5,166 vessels totalling 34m GT and with an order book for 680 vessels totalling 4.6m GT. RINA also confirmed its place as the global leader in classification of passenger ro-ro ferries and ro-ro vessels in general and as a major player in the cruise ship sector, whether measured by classed fleet or new order book.

New orders in 2014 included two mega cruise ships for MSC Cruises. The 5,300-passenger vessels will be built by Fincantieri and will include innovative open spaces and very high environmental performance. RINA Services is also classing a significant jumboisation project for MSC Cruises, the Renaissance Project. Also in the cruise sector Seabourn Cruise Line ordered two 604-passengers luxury cruise vessels to RINA class at Fincantieri and RINA class was chosen for two similar vessels to be built for Silversea Cruises.

RINA also focussed on providing value-added services to shipowners, always aiming to reduce costs, reduce risks and improve fleet availability. The strong service ethic of RINA’s global network led shipowners to move 400 ships totalling 2.6m GT to RINA class during 2014.

Within the rest of the group, Business Assurance grew 3.5 per cent and Transport and Infrastructures grew 20 per cent and for the first time were able to compete in major projects outside Italy. Food testing and certification grew 13 per cent with Agroqualità, RINA’s food company, becoming the leader in South Italy and the second largest nationally.

RINA’s consulting engineering company D’Appolonia grew 7 per cent thanks to  diversification and international growth in areas such as the Mozambique, India, Uruguay, USA.

RINA’s group strategy of growth through targeted acquisition continued with the acquisition of material specialist CSM, Tunisian food laboratory Lab21, Brazilian certification company Bracert and marine survey company Hayes Stuart in Canada. This international growth was underpinned by the capital investment of Intesa Sanpaolo and Vei Capital who together provided Euro 25m in capital and put at the disposal of the group a further Euro 75m to fund the international growth plan.

 RINA is a multi-national group which delivers verification, certification, conformity assessment, marine classification, environmental enhancement, product testing, site and vendor supervision, training and engineering consultancy across a wide range of industries and services. RINA operates through a network of companies covering Marine, Energy, Infrastructures & Construction, Transport & Logistics, Food & Agriculture, Environment & Sustainability, Finance & Public Institutions and Business Governance. With a turnover of over 330 million Euros in 2014, over 2,750 employees, and 163 offices in 60 countries worldwide, RINA is recognized as an authoritative member of key international organizations and an important contributor to the development of new legislative standards.        

Contacts:

Giulia Faravelli

Media Relations Manager RINA

+39 010 5385505

giulia.faravelli@rina.org

Victoria Silvestri

Media Relations RINA

+39 010 5385555

victoria.silvestri@rina.org

Shipping, transport and trade will benefit from EU debt recovery proposal

ROTTERDAM-based law firm AKD says shipping and international trade and logistics operators should welcome a recent decision by European Justice Ministers which will improve their chances of successfully recovering money owed to them by trading partners in EU countries by effectively opening the door to the Europe-wide freezing of bank accounts.

At the end of December, 2013, European Justice Ministers reached agreement on the European Account Preservation Order (EAPO), which will facilitate the recovery of cross-border debt claims throughout the EU. This is part of an ongoing programme to harmonise procedural rules throughout Europe.

Sebastiaan Moolenaar, a partner with the transport & trade team at AKD, says, “Creditors seeking to recover debts in EU member states face serious difficulties, particularly in the current difficult - albeit generally improving - economic climate. It has been estimated that European companies lose roughly 2.6 per cent of their yearly turnover to bad debts. Moreover, about a million SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) encounter problems with cross-border debts, reportedly writing off up to EUR 600m a year because they are scared off by the time, effort and cost involved in taking even provisional steps to preserve the assets of debtors located abroad.

“Easy and quick access to asset preservation measures is essential in order to ensure that debtors do not remove or dissipate their assets before creditors have obtained judgment. But the prospects for issuing - and the conditions governing - asset preservation orders vary considerably under the national laws of different EU countries. Among other things, it is sometimes impossible in many EU countries for creditors to obtain information about the whereabouts of their debtors’ bank accounts, and the cost of obtaining and enforcing a cross-border account preservation order is often prohibitive.

“The EAPO proposal should be welcomed by all parties to the transportation chain operating throughout Europe. It allows money to stay where it is until a court has taken a decision on the repayment of funds. It will introduce uniformity to the account preservation orders which creditors can obtain, irrespective of the country in which the competent court issuing the order is located. Creditors will be allowed access to information concerning the whereabouts of debtors' bank accounts, and costs and delays involved in obtaining and enforcing account preservation orders will be reduced.”

The EAPO proposal will not replace or change existing national systems for arresting debtors’ assets. Rather, it will constitute an alternative European procedure for creditors, and is essentially protective in nature. It will become law following adoption by the European Parliament and by EU member states. A final agreement is expected soon.

AKD’s trade and transport team provides a full range of legal services. AKD is a full-service firm with over 250 lawyers. www.akd.nl