shipping

Leading ratings agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has confirmed North P&I club’s ‘A’ financial strength rating and stable outlook for the eight consecutive year. The agency says its rating reflects the 150 million GT club’s continued ‘very strong financial flexibility, strong capitalisation and strong competitive position’. According to S&P analysts Tufan Basarir and Peter McClean, ‘North now ranks as the second largest member of the International Group of P&I Clubs by owned tonnage and the third largest by total tonnage. We believe that the club will maintain its strong competitive position by continuing to manage the growth in its tonnage to ensure that financial strength and member service are not weakened, nor the club’s portfolio quality diluted’. S&P sees North’s 20-year record of not having to ask members for unbudgeted supplementary funding as a significant success factor. ‘The club’s avoidance of unplanned supplementary calls, in our opinion, has contributed positively to this growth. We do not expect the club to make supplementary calls over the next two years (two-year rating horizon) because of its strong capitalisation.’ The agency also says North has a long-term track record of outperforming most of its peers, which can be attributed to firmer underwriting of risks and a low expense base. ‘This is best illustrated by North’s 14-year average combined ratio over 1998-2011 of 102%, compared with International Group clubs’ average of 114% over the same period,’ say the analysts. In addition S&P believes North has clear strategic goals. ‘First and foremost is the continued development of a quality portfolio within a framework of financial strength, and comprehensive service and support for members. The club has virtually achieved its goal of increasing its market share of mutual business to 12.5%. This growth will yield economies of scale for operational expenses. ‘North also has extensive operational controls in place that ensure a high level of accountability. Preparations for Solvency II have seen enhancements made to the club’s financial reporting structures to enable automated quarterly balance sheet reporting, which supports the solvency capital calculations,’ say the analysts. Responding to S&P’s comments, chairman Pratap Shirke said, ‘I am pleased we have yet again maintained our ‘A’ (stable) rating, which is a testament to the continuing quality, diversity and international spread of our membership portfolio as well as to our financial prudence and service quality. It also serves to demonstrate the importance of achieving the 5% general increase we have set for premiums at next month’s renewal, both to preserve our financial strength and maintain our rating in the current adverse economic climate.’

North is a leading marine mutual liability insurer providing P&I, FD&D, war risks and ancillary insurance to 115 million GT of owned tonnage and 35 million GT of chartered tonnage, with 6000 ships entered by 400 members. It is based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK with regional offices in Hong Kong, Piraeus and Singapore. The club is a leading member of the International Group of P&I Clubs, with approximately 12% of the group’s owned tonnage. The 13 group clubs provide liability cover for approximately 90% of the world’s ocean-going tonnage and, as a member of the group, North protects and promotes the interests of the international shipping industry.

“Management was always saying, ‘Pass by there, pass by there’. Someone else in my position might not have been so amenable to pass so close but they busted my b—-, ‘Pass by there, pass by there’, and now I’m paying for it,” Captain Francesco Schettino, 52, told a friend during a telephone conversation in the hours after he was arrested.

Genoa-based Costa Cruises insists that it never authorized him to steer so close to the island on the night of Jan 13, a manoeuvre that resulted in the 1,000ft liner hitting rocks and capsizing.

But the tape recordings appear to back up claims by the captain and his lawyers that the cruise company encouraged the practice, because it was good “publicity” and went down well with passengers in the competitive cruise ship business.

The captain’s conversation was taped when he was held in a police station on the mainland. He called a friend on his mobile phone and told him: “When I realized that the ship was listing, I left and got off it.” He also repeated claims that the rocky islet that the ship smashed into was not marked by his electronic navigation systems.

He had been relying instead on a paper chart and on the advice of Mario Palombo, a former colleague and veteran Costa captain for whom the “salute” to Giglio was intended. Mr Palombo has a house on the island, but was not there that night. Yesterday, the death toll stood at 16, with about 20 people still missing.

Capt Schettino is being held under house arrest. He faces charges of causing a shipwreck, abandoning ship and manslaughter.

Afraid of heights and talking to strangers, particularly men, Percival said she heard a call from God to tend to the needs of the often abused and mistreated eastern European sailors on vessels tied up in Durban’s harbour in the late 1990s. Each evening, she would first go home, say a prayer and then, together with her sister, Joyce, drive down to the harbour, look for the ships with Russian flags and clamber aboard to share the gospel. Once she retired, Percival joined the International Sailors Society and ministered to the sailors full time.

In December, Percival received the International Seafarers’ Welfare Award at the International Labour Organisation on the opening night of the Maritime Labour Convention in Geneva. She shared the award with her Hong Kong friend and colleague, the English-born Reverend Peter Ellis.

“I heard I had been nominated and that was such an honour. And then I received a phone call asking me if my travel documents were in order because I had won and would have to travel to Geneva. Well, I just couldn’t believe it,” she said. Percival said eastern European sailors, particularly after Perestroika and the collapse of the Russian shipping industry, were often badly treated. “Some had not spoken to their families for over a year, while others needed medical attention. Also, they just didn’t get paid.” At the age of 60, Percival took a course in Russian and she spent three months visiting Russia, Georgia, the Ukraine and Romania at the invitation of families she had helped.

With a myriad stories to tell, of praying every day at the door of a critically burnt engineer, to assisting a woman with an acute kidney infection, Percival says she is ready to write a book.

“I could think of no better way to have spent my retirement,” she said.

Her life philosophy is to learn more. “When I first started visiting the ships, I would have to lug bibles… By the time I left, I was handing out a memory stick,” she said. “I keep in contact with the sailors on Skype.”