Clarksons

About Clarksons

Clarksons is the world's largest shipbroker, a London-headquartered provider of integrated shipping services and investment banking capabilities to the shipping and offshore markets. Founded in 1852 by Horace Anderton Clarkson, Clarkson PLC is listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CKN and is a member of the FTSE 250 Index, offering its global client base an unrivalled range of shipbroking services, sector research, logistical support and investment banking across all key shipping and offshore sectors. The company plays what it calls a vital intermediary role in the movement of the majority of commodities around the world.

Founding in 1852

In 1852 Horace Anderton Clarkson opened a small shipbroking office in London. The firm he founded would grow over the next 170 years into the world's leading shipbroker, its history intertwined with the rise of Britain as the centre of world shipping and the subsequent globalisation of the maritime industry.

The Victorian-era founding gave Clarksons a head start that it never relinquished: by the early twentieth century it was already among the leading names in London shipbroking, the marketplace where the world's shipowners and charterers met to fix vessels and cargoes.

Becoming the world's leading tanker broker

A defining moment came in 1929, when Clarksons was appointed Esso's shipbrokers, becoming the world-leading tanker broker. The appointment tied the firm to the great oil major at the dawn of the tanker age, as petroleum replaced coal as the world's dominant energy source and the seaborne oil trade became one of shipping's great markets.

The tanker broking franchise built on the Esso relationship carried Clarksons through the twentieth century's oil-driven shipping cycles. The firm's knowledge of tanker markets — rates, routes, vessel availability, charterers' requirements — became one of its most valuable assets and a foundation for its later diversification.

Diversification: ownership, insurance and beyond

From 1945 Clarksons began intermittent ship ownership, notably owning bulk carriers — putting its own capital alongside its broking, a common pattern among the great broking houses. In the 1950s it diversified into insurance broking and related services, extending its intermediary role from ships and cargoes into the insurance that protected them, before selling the insurance interests in 1974.

The pattern of diversification and focus has recurred throughout the company's history: expanding into adjacent intermediary businesses where its market knowledge gave it an edge, and retreating where it did not. The core — broking ships, cargoes and the capital that finances them — remained constant.

The four business segments

Today Clarksons operates through integrated segments. Broking, the largest, provides services to shipowners and charterers across dry bulk, tanker, gas (LNG and LPG), container and offshore broking, alongside sale and purchase brokerage for vessels — the secondhand market in which ships themselves change hands.

The Financial segment provides investment banking, IPO advisory, mergers and acquisitions advice, debt advisory and futures broking in forward freight agreements for the shipping and offshore sectors. The combination of broking and banking is Clarksons' distinctive proposition: the firm that fixes the charter can also advise on the fleet acquisition, finance the vessels and hedge the freight exposure.

Clarkson PLC and the stock market

In 2001 the company changed its name from Horace Clarkson PLC to Clarkson PLC, modernising the corporate identity while retaining the founder's name in the Clarksons trading brand. The company is led by chief executive Andi Case and chief financial and operating officer Jeff Woyda.

As a listed company, Clarksons has been noted for its shareholder returns: its regulatory announcements have recorded 16 years of consecutive dividend growth, supported by the highly cash-generative nature of the broking business and a strong balance sheet that has allowed continued investment through the shipping cycle's ups and downs.

Growth by acquisition

Clarksons has grown by acquiring complementary broking businesses around the world. In November 2014 it disclosed takeover talks with the board of Norwegian rival RS Platou ASA: the two boards said the complementary activities, in geography, operations and industry specialisation, would position the enlarged group as a leading integrated global shipping and offshore group, in a market that was consolidating and demanding a higher degree of advisory professional services.

The company has also expanded in specialist markets through deals such as the acquisition of Martankers I, S.L., the Spanish ship brokerage established in 1989 by Isabel Pons and Arnold des Arts, which had played a critical role in the Spanish ship brokerage markets. Each acquisition has extended Clarksons' geographic reach or sectoral depth, reinforcing its scale advantage.

Research and market intelligence

Alongside its broking and banking, Clarksons provides sector research that is among the most authoritative in shipping. The research operation's data on fleets, order books, trade flows and freight markets informs the broking desks and is sold to clients across the industry, making Clarksons not only the largest intermediary in shipping but one of its leading intelligence providers.

The intelligence function completes the integrated model: research identifies the market opportunity, broking executes the transaction, and the financial division structures the capital behind it — a full-service offering no competitor can fully replicate at Clarksons' scale.

Global scale

Clarksons operates from more than 60 locations in over 40 countries, employing around 2,250 people, with offices across six continents. The network spans the world's great shipping centres — London, Singapore, Houston, Oslo, Hamburg, Shanghai, Dubai — placing brokers close to the owners, charterers and financiers they serve.

The scale is itself a competitive advantage in broking: the more cargoes and vessels a broker sees, the better the matches it can make. Clarksons' global footprint means its desks handle a substantial share of the world's chartering activity, generating the market knowledge that underpins its research and advisory businesses.

Clarksons today

Today Clarkson PLC, trading as Clarksons, is the world's leading provider of integrated shipping services and investment banking capabilities to the shipping and offshore markets, facilitating global trade from its London headquarters. Founded in 1852, it offers an unrivalled range of shipbroking services, sector research, on-hand logistical support and full investment banking capabilities in all key shipping and offshore sectors.

From Horace Anderton Clarkson's small 1852 office to a FTSE 250 company with thousands of staff on six continents, Clarksons' history is the history of modern shipbroking itself: the rise of the tanker trade, the container revolution, the financialisation of shipping and the emergence of offshore energy — every chapter of the industry's development recorded in the fixtures of the world's largest shipbroker.

Resilience through the shipping cycle

Clarksons' integrated model has repeatedly proved its resilience through shipping's notorious cycles. In the first half of 2018, a challenging trading environment across the shipping and offshore capital markets — including a quiet period in sale and purchase activity, accentuated by a fall in the value of the US dollar — cut pre-tax profit to £18 million from £21.9 million a year earlier, on revenue of £152.6 million against £156.8 million. Chief executive Andi Case noted that conditions improved in the second quarter, when the breadth and diversity of the business again provided opportunity irrespective of market volatility, and said the company remained confident in its mid-to-long-term potential while continuing to invest and drive innovation.

The episode echoed an earlier test: in 2012 Bloomberg reported Clarkson shares plunging the most since 2009 after the company warned earnings would undershoot expectations amid a slump in vessel prices, with the shares falling 8.7 per cent and the number of ships bought and sold dropping sharply. Each downturn has demonstrated the same lesson — that the breadth of Clarksons' broking, financial and research businesses allows it to find opportunity across the cycle — and each recovery has reinforced its leadership of world shipbroking.