Look for the controlling shareholder.
That was the advice delivered by mergers-and-acquisitions specialist Mark Friedman of Evercore when he spoke to a Marine Money finance forum in New York last month and described what factors drive — and block — the M&A game in shipping.
Friedman’s thesis: compared to other industries, shipping has a high ratio of companies with a large “controlling” shareholder, which for the most part impedes getting consolidation done.
