BRoKInG/SeRVICeS


clearedtrading in Singapore


The trading of forward freight agreements (FFAs) has largely been an unregulated market and lacks trading screens seen in many other derivative products. In deciding to set up a trading screen for FFAs and dry bulk commodities Cleartrade Exchange chose Singapore as its base and regulatory jurisdication.Granted a license by the MonetaryAuthority of Singapore (MAS) in late January this year Cleartrade is now targeting to go live as a trading platform inApril. “MAS was chosen largely because of the


commodity set we were looking at and their approach to the transformation of what is a largely unregulated products, and how we would move them closer to become futures swaps type products,” Richard Baker, managing director of Cleartrade says. As well as the regulatory environment


Singapore was seen as being in a location related to where these types of commodities are traded. Baker notes a lot of the FFA routes traded are based inAsia.“It seemed like a great hub as we begin to see


further Chinese speculators, as we see a lot of commodities fromAustralasia being shipped to China and Japan,” he says. The measures taken by the Singapore


government to attract shipping interests to its shores were also a draw.“I cannot deny the ongoing government support for freight and maritime businesses is very significant and probably the most attractive in the world,” he adds. Singapore is the head office for


Cleartrade with sales and marketing office also set up in London.“We will grow the Singapore-based team to fundamentally fulfill the market based operations function,” Baker says.These functions include the registering of new members and Cleatrade’s regulatory and compliance teams. In future the company is also looking to set up sales and marketing operations in other locations around the world. In providing a trading screen Cleartrade


is connected to general clearing banks and clearing houses to OTC clearing of trades


almost instantaneously. In the run up to its launch inApril


Cleartrade is in the process of signing up principles and brokers to use the system and is targeting in particular the 40 or so principle accounts.“We would be very happy if there was in excess of 10 accounts trading on Cleartrade fromApril and that’s pretty healthy start,” Baker says.


under one roof


For Braemar Shipping Services the wide variety of shipping,maritime and trading businesses that in are in Singapore are mirrored in its new office in the city state where it has brought all its different business lines under one roof. In Singapore Braemar has its shipbroking


business under Braemar Seascope, the global headquarters of offshore service industry


are Braemar Falconer, loss adjusters Braermar Steege, and its ship agency business Cory Brothers. “We have all the different cultures with


different business streams coming together in one office,we are trying to use the crossover of contacts and the general synergies across the energy and commodities world, so we are linking all our businesses,” says Denis Petropoulos, executive managing director of Braemar Seascope.“Singapore is a perfect place for that because all those businesses are prolific in each segment in Singapore.The client base themselves are the same in many areas.” Petropoulous has himself moved to


Singapore to oversee the expansion of its activities here.The London-headquartered company has also built its presence here to both be closer toAsian clients and companies from Europe who have significantly built up their businesses in Singapore in recent years. Braemar has undertaken a major


expansion of its shipbroking business in Singapore.The broker started out in


Singapore over a decade ago with business in the chemical and gas markets and this has now grown to a team of over 20 people. With the shift in dry bulk operators from Australia to the republic a few years ago Braemer also moved some its brokers as there was demand for a more localised dry cargo team.Today this is a team of 15 brokers. About three years ago part of the


broker’s container team was moved to Singapore, as well as Shanghai, and Petropoulous says they have developed some “nice niche business as a result of this”. Adding to these areas now on the


broking side are offshore, deepsea tanker chartering, sale and purchase and an FFA presence.He stresses they are not transferring business from London but instead opening up new markets. “We want to get into new business


streams here, there are a lot of trading companies here,Chinese companies that have opened here,” he says.The company also sees opportunities in the Philippines andVietnam.


Seatrade Singapore Report 2011


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