Click Here

Offshore Companies for Yacht, Ship and Aircraft Ownership

Ship Management companies

The shipping industry has always been a major user of offshore companies and a large percentage of the world’s merchant shipping fleet is owned by companies incorporated in such territories as Panama, Liberia, the Bahamas, the Isle of Man and Cyprus.

Similarly the offshore territories are centres for the registration of yachts, for both commercial purposes and for pleasure vessels and offer locally based expertise in such matters as:

• Ship Management
• Ship Finance
• Marine Insurance
• Maritime law
• Formation and management of ship owning and ship management companies

 
Shipping law is complex and the detail varies from country to country but essentially the registration process takes place in two stages, firstly the formation of the company which is to own the vessel followed by the registration of the ship itself. There are generally no restrictions on the ownership of the company whereas many territories do not permit more than half the shares in a ship to be directly owned by other than a restricted range of defined foreign nationals.

Merchant ships have to be registered with an approved Classification Society and, in many countries, the functions of effective management must be undertaken by a locally resident company having responsibility for the ship. Panama and Liberia are however open registries and any local or foreign national may register a vessel.

To gain further information call +353 1 431 9663 or Click Here to contact us.