Shipping : is it a high risk low return business?

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the risk and return characteristics of the shipping business. Shipping profitability and returns are evaluated and an analysis is performed to examine whether the returns are adequate to compensate the amount of risk the investor is bearing. Statistical tools are used to quantify risk and the average returns of the shipping industry are measured and compared with other asset classes. Diversification among different types of ships, and different asset classes is used to maximize the return and minimize the risk of an "efficient fleet". The Capital Asset Pricing Model and the efficient frontier are used to identify the optimal asset allocation. Valuation methods and investment timing techniques are used in order to increase the probability of success and improve the decision making. Finally a real project is evaluated using financial tools.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Ocean Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Patitsas, Leon S

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Henry S. Marcus.

• Ocean Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33571

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33571