Maritime shipping: the alternative asset class most UK investors have never considered

I spent over two decades at sea as a Master Mariner. Bulk carriers, tankers, container ships. In that time I watched the companies that owned those vessels generate contracted income
through conditions that would have wiped out a conventional equity portfolio – by Captain Vikas Pandey

What stayed with me was not the economics of it. It was who owned the assets. Banks. Shipping families with offices in Athens or Hamburg. Family offices investing through Geneva. The access was always concentrated in the same small group of cities and institutions.

Private investors were not part of that picture. Not because the asset class didn’t work, but because the structures for accessing it were built for participants with millions to commit and
specialist legal teams on retainer.

The invisible asset class

More than 80% of global trade by volume moves by sea, according to UNCTAD’s Review of Maritime Transport. Clarksons Research puts the global merchant fleet at roughly $2 trillion by
vessel value. The cash flows are contracted, the asset has historically low correlation with UK equity market performance, and it generates income from physical trade rather than financial
market sentiment.

Yet it has almost never appeared on the radar of UK private investors.

The reason is simple: direct investment in a commercial vessel runs through a Special Purpose Vehicle, a company created to own one ship, raise equity from a small investor group, and
contract that vessel to charterers for hire. Minimum equity positions in those SPV structures historically ran to several million dollars. The legal infrastructure was built for participants in
Piraeus and Geneva, not for investors on Hargreaves Lansdown.

How the income actually works

A commercial vessel earns through freight contracts or time-charter agreements. Under a time charter, an operator hires the vessel for a fixed period at a daily hire rate. The shipowner
handles capital and maintenance; the charterer pays fuel and voyage costs. The hire income above operating costs flows to the SPV’s equity holders.

I’ve stood on the bridge of a Capesize bulk carrier waiting for a charter fixture while the vessel burns $15,000 a day in bunker fuel at anchor. I’ve also been on vessels that ran back-to-back
charters for two solid years. Both situations are part of the same asset. The operational volatility is the risk. The independence from equity and bond market cycles is what makes it useful as a
portfolio diversifier. You can’t cleanly separate the two.

Charter rates move with global cargo volumes, fleet supply cycles, and trade route demand.

They are largely indifferent to what the Bank of England does with interest rates.

The access problem and what tokenisation does about it

DLT-based tokenisation allows the equity in a vessel-owning SPV to be divided into digital tokens, each representing an economic interest in that SPV. The minimum entry drops from
several million dollars to a level accessible to a much wider investor base. Issuance, custody, and eligibility sit within a regulatory framework rather than in an opaque private placement.
This market is still early. Regulatory frameworks for tokenised asset ownership are at different stages of maturity across jurisdictions. In the UAE, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority
(VARA) has developed a framework for tokenised asset issuance. Shipfinex operates under VARA In-Principle Approval (IPA/26/01/002).

Before you go any further

These investments are illiquid. Maritime Asset Tokens do not trade on an exchange comparable to a listed equity market. Exiting early is not guaranteed to be possible or straightforward.
The underlying asset carries genuine operational risk. Vessels face mechanical problems, gaps between charters, and unexpected dry-docking costs. Those realities affect SPV performance
directly.

The regulatory framework is UAE-based, not FCA-regulated. UK investors should note clearly that FSCS protection does not apply here, and the protections available to them differ materially
from those covering an FCA-regulated investment.

Minimum holding periods apply. Read them before committing.

This is not where you put money you might need back within the year. It sits in the part of a portfolio where you accept illiquidity in exchange for exposure to something that genuinely
doesn’t move with your other holdings.

Why it’s worth understanding

The economics of ship ownership haven’t changed. What’s changed is the access infrastructure. Tokenisation doesn’t improve the risk profile of the underlying asset. It creates a regulated
participation route where retail access was previously structurally closed off.

If 80% of global trade has been moving by sea your entire investing life and it’s never crossed your mind as an asset class, that’s not a gap in the market. It’s a gap in the access
infrastructure. That gap is only recently starting to close.

Captain Vikas Pandey is a Master Mariner with over two decades of operational sea experience and Co-founder of Shipfinex, a maritime asset tokenisation platform operating under VARA In-Principle Approval (IPA/26/01/002) in Dubai.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Maritime Asset Tokens involve significant risk
including potential total loss of capital and are not covered by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Shipfinex is regulated by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in the UAE. It is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom.
Maritime Asset Tokens are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). UK readers should seek independent financial advice before considering any
investment in virtual assets.

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute a financial promotion within the meaning of section 21 of the Financial
Services and Markets Act 2000