Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Braemar Shipping Services Plc H1 Results Update Investor Presentation. Throughout this presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted any time by the Q&A tab situated in the right-hand corner of your screen. Just click Q&A, scroll to the bottom, type your question and press Send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. These will be available via your Investor Meet Company dashboard, and you'll be notified once they're ready for your review. I'd also like to remind you that this presentation is being recorded. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll.
I'd now like to hand you over to James Gundy, Chief Executive Officer, Nick Stone, Chief Financial Officer of Braemar Shipping Services Plc. Good afternoon.
Thank you, Paul. Appreciate that. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining the Braemar presentation this afternoon. I thought the important thing to start was bearing in mind some of you may know Braemar, some of you may not, and I'm sure many of you don't necessarily know who I am and Nick. Maybe a little introduction, first of all, to explain where we are and who we are. Obviously, my name is James Gundy. I've been in the business some 35 years. Originally started broking at Clarksons for some 10 years, then moved to a smaller company called ACM. We grew that company and we IPOed that in 2006, and I was a Chief Operations Ofiicer and instrumental to the IPO. Moved to become Chief Financial Officer in 2012.
We merged into Braemar Shipping, and it became a reverse takeover on the shipbroking side, and I became the Chief Financial Officer of shipbroking. A lot of restructuring. It took quite a few years to get together. From then I thought it's the right time to move to become Group Chief Financial Officer, and that's been my position since January the first this year. Now, Nick Stone is the Group Chief Financial Officer, and I think he should also do an introduction before we move to the presentation. Go ahead, Nick.
Afternoon, everybody. Yeah, Nick Stone. I've been with Braemar just under three years. Prior to that, I was with several other small medium-sized listed companies, not in the shipbroking or shipping space, but generally people businesses which shipbroking is another example. I've been involved in a lot of the restructuring that's gone on over the last two years, and for the last year, in particular, working very closely with James to reset the strategy and sort out some of the historical issues with the business which we've made some good progress in this period.
Okay. Right. Let's get on with the interim results and the presentation, and I can guide you through that. Obviously, from coming in, as Nick mentioned there, I had a strategy to focus the business on the shipbroking, which was really the core business, and to grow and strengthen revenue profits. That's happened. Streamlined the business, as I mentioned, and the contracting has continued so far this year and has improved throughout the year, in fact, and we've obviously been updating the market accordingly to what's been happening. The balance sheet has obviously strengthened on the back of what we've done. We can continue.
Now, obviously, coming in as Group Chief Executive Officer, I had to think, make a bit of an impact and say where I thought I could do, and bearing in mind what my past record for the last 10 years, what we've done, I felt it was fair enough to put a certain target and, you know, to say it's ambitious, obviously, but to say that I felt I could obviously double the size of the business the next four years, achieve optimum scale and market share, utilize our position as a U.K.-listed company. Now, how we achieve this is obviously through organic growth, obviously a key factor, target acquisitions, new products coverage, which we already set on doing that, as you'll see later on in the presentation. Utilize technology and strengthen our business infrastructure.
Now, since the changes this year, we've seen board changes with a new chairman coming in, who's. I can obviously say that myself and him have really hit the ground running. Tristram Simmonds moved in as Chief Operations Officer. I've known Tristram for some 25 years. We bought his business in Braemar Naves and set up our securities business, which has done exceptionally well. It's now some 12, 13% of our business. Lisa Gooch has come in now as Non-Executive Director, replacing on the Remco side. Now, restructuring Naves, which I managed to do, and that's by bringing them into shipbroking as well. I did that. We managed to defer some of the payments, as you can see there, written there.
The balance sheet was re-strengthened, improved short-term liquidity, planned integration of financial and shipbroking divisions, obviously, and combined expertise in shipping investment and risk management. All this has obviously happened within the year so far. Now, I think I'll let Nick obviously go through the Aqualis.
Thanks, James. Another thing that has been done over the last three years, basically, is disposal of a loss-making division that was Braemar Technical Services, which was put into a listed Norwegian business that became AqualisBraemar. During this period, we have now sold out all of our remaining holding in it. We had cash proceeds in the period of just under GBP 8 million, around GBP 16 million in total, which again went to further strengthen the balance sheet.
The last piece of the jigsaw really of what used to be a sort of four-division business is a planned joint venture of our logistics division, which is called Cory Brothers, with a Dutch competitor called Vertom, where we believe they will form a much stronger Pan-European business that will be able to compete on the global stage much more effectively than either business on its own. We'll talk a little bit more about that on a further slide later on. The trading overview for the first six months of our year, revenue was up by 11%, underlying operating profit up by 10%. The shipbroking markets that we operate in were in dry cargo, sale and purchase, and securities were very strong.
Tankers was relatively weak, but we are now seeing signs of recovery in that. We had significant success fees in our financial corporate finance business called Naves, and revenue there was up by 49%. We also saw revenue and profit growth in Cory Brothers, which is the business that's going into the joint venture. Operating profits, if you include that Cory Brothers element, was actually up by 23%. We're pleased to say that full year trading outlook was in line with market expectations. And also to note that those market expectations have been upgraded a couple of times already during the period. Strong trading in the period as well as dealing with a lot of the balance sheet issues and the historic baggage that is present in Braemar.
If we look at the numbers, you can see the headlines that I've already run through. Revenue GBP 47.4 million, up 11%. Underlying operating profit was the measure that's up 10%. That doesn't include Cory Brothers 'cause it was treated as held for sale on the balance sheet. If you include that profit, it's up 23%. Our reported profit before tax was up by over 100%. That's because of the profit that we made on the sale of the AqualisBraemar shares. Underlying earnings per share up 11%. We also have paid an interim dividend which is GBP 0.02, which we didn't pay one. We passed dividends for two periods due to the uncertainty of COVID, but we're now back to paying a modest dividend at both interim and final level.
We talked about the balance sheet strengthening, and you can see that over the last 12 months, our net bank debt has nearly halved, has more than halved, rather. Our total net debt has also halved from GBP 30 million at August 2020 to GBP 14.7 million at August 2021. There's a lot of noise in our results, but the underlying measures we think we're all very pleased with, and we think they're all heading in the right direction. Change the slide. Back to you.
Yeah. Obviously there's been many changes in the shipbroking world, especially as I know from someone who's been in it for 35-odd years, so I've seen many changes. The one big key factor is consolidation. Obviously, shipping is in the line of discussions regarding carbon reduction.
I mean, world shipping is 2.5% of the present world carbon. There's gonna be a lot of changes within the shipping world as far as changes of fuel, et cetera. CME is expected to be the short term choice because that obviously reduces carbon, but that creates a supply and demand issue. Large part of the fleet is aging. Shipyards are presently full until 2025, late 2025. There's lots of reasons why it's looking strong. COVID disruption will continue. It's still continuing. You know, we see 13% of the world fleet sitting outside the container market, either Los Angeles or China. It's creating increasing costs. We see the IEA expects oil demand to recover.
That's an obvious factor once COVID comes back. We expect the tanker market to return to its strength. As I just mentioned, new building orders are low, 20-year low. We are seeing that there's a massive demand for steel. The recycling market is very strong, and we'll see the older vessels start to be removed from the fleet. If you can change, Nick. Now, this is an interesting slide for us of where we need to grow and where we came to that bold statement of doubling our business. Obviously, you can see from the graph below where we're strong and some of those blue graphs have actually turned blue in the last three or four years, where we've invested heavily in the shipbroking side.
Obviously allows us still to grow the business, especially within other sectors of the world. We already have some 15, 16 offices around the world already, so we can easily add into that. We obviously expand on the derivatives side globally and obviously with as new markets come in, we'll obviously be part of that as well. Looking to move into that. Sorry, Nick.
No, I'll let Nick go on the Zuma one here.
One of the things we've done over the last year is invest in a business called Zuma Labs. It was set up by a former trader in the dry freight futures market who identified a need for better data around some of the the shipping related paper trading markets. We've invested in that business. We now own around 20% of it. What it provides for us is a screen which we think provides the best data for the current trading in the dry FFA market in particular, but also will be developed in certain other markets like LPG and certain other paper trading markets that we operate in.
It drives customers to the screen to get access to the best data as to what's going on in the market. It's not a trading screen per se, but it does allow customers to put orders for either sale or purchases of these paper contracts, which then allows our brokers to be both more efficient and also have a better view of where the market is heading at any one trading session. Since this screen has been available, our revenue on that dry FFA desk has increased by over 400%. We've actually invested in more people as well, more brokers to sit on that desk.
There's no doubt that this technology has driven more customer, more interest, and therefore more commissions generated for Braemar as a result of the availability of that data. We see this as an important area where we continue to invest in the future in order to grow the Braemar business.
Okay.
The next slide, I touched on this at the top, is the rationale behind the Cory-Vertom joint venture. Cory is a good business, a great 100-year-plus brand in the British port agency market but has never really broken away from being a U.K. business. They've worked with Vertom for the last five or six years. Vertom are very strong in northern Europe, in the Baltic, and in some of the Mediterranean ports as well. Between them, they can cover the whole of Europe, you know, in a way that neither could alone.
We think that there'll be synergies in terms of cost, but also it will be a business that can grow stronger, given the increased coverage. We expect this joint venture to be concluded by the end of this financial year. As I mentioned earlier, this business is shown as held for sale on our balance sheet. The final disposal into this joint venture vehicle will be the final piece of that jigsaw, if you like. I'll just move on. I think James Gundy will talk a little bit about the revenues in the business.
Yeah. I think it's the most important thing about, as I mentioned about with the consolidation story, et cetera, is about the diversification of the business. I mean, from being when we was ACM, we were a smaller AIM public business that, you know, predominantly focused on, tanker market. It was great when the tanker market was obviously strong, but when it went weak, it caused all sorts of problems. By diversifying in the last five or six years, we've invested heavily into dry cargo and some key players, whether that be in Europe or whether that be in Singapore. Obviously into securities. I believe in securities. You know, the futures market is very much the tool that the brokers on the physical side need.
With that, you could have you can't really attract the top guys to come in unless you've got that desk as well. You can see from where we were in 2021, you can see how strong tankers was. That's partly caused by when the oil price went into negative and the forward curve, which massively into contango, created storage. You can see obviously where we are now on that pie chart from, you know, it means that we can. It goes back to the graph we showed you earlier about how we can grow our business. The groundwork's already been done, so now it's a case of building on those desks as globally as well as central.
You can see obviously the revenue profit's gone up as well from GBP 42.8 to GBP 47.4. All right? I think at the end, I think I want you to ask me any basic questions regarding shipbroking. I'm just hoping you understand what shipbroking is, and if you don't, I guess at the end you can ask me questions on that and how it's done, how we make our money, et cetera. Okay, Nick, we can go forward.
Just to add, next year, we will be reporting our segmental data on this basis, these seven desks, if you like. In the current year, because of the transition in the business, we still have three separate divisions, which we are reporting separately. I'll just cover each one briefly in turn now. Shipbroking, which is the bulk of what you saw on the previous slide, as you can see, revenue's up. Underlying operating profit from shipbroking marginally down. The margin was squeezed this year, and there's a couple of reasons for that. We have higher deferred share charges during the period, and we have also invested in the business. We brought in several new teams.
We've opened offices in Athens and in Geneva over the last 12 months, all of which has cost money, which has hit that margin. It's gone down from 15.5%-14%. You will see, however, though, that the margin is stronger than it was in the previous full year. The other KPI that is very important to us is our forward order book. That is business that has been contracted but not yet invoiced nor revenue recognized. In the period, you can see it's gone up from GBP 43.4 million to GBP 55.5 million. We've also disclosed that since August, it has increased further up to just shy of GBP 60 million.
That really is an indication of the visibility of the revenue in the business as we move forward. The financial division, this is Naves. It's a corporate finance, a small corporate finance team, 20 or so people. Very high margin business. You can see they generate income through retainer clients and through success fees. Basically advising clients on refinancing or sales transactions and work very closely alongside the sale and purchase shipbroking desks. They had two significant transactions in the period.
One was a sale, not actually of container ships, but container boxes, and the other was actually the refinancing of an offshore vessel business that had been struggling since the oil price came off in 2014, and has finally now been refinanced. Very strong progress. The one note of caution on this is that it is a lumpy business, and we will see profits that may not just grow in a straight line. The final one is Cory Brothers, which we are looking to put into this joint venture. It's traded really well in the period. We have been able to take advantage of that when it comes to the joint venture terms.
A couple of drivers behind what's going on in that business, some of which was Brexit driven, as more and more U.K. businesses need help in both importing and exporting post the Brexit changes at the beginning of the year. The business has also been restructured somewhat over the last two years. A new and young management team that have gone about this in a very effective way, and we're now really seeing the benefits come through in margins. With that, I'll hand back to James.
Yeah. Basically, summary outlook. That means strong shipbroking performance driven by dry cargo and S&P. As I mentioned to you, in the last two or three years, it's proven the fact our investment in dry cargo and S&P was definitely improving in our results, as we speak. High success fees in Naves, and the integration of this obviously is important because that once again is creating, we're obviously getting the value, the synergy of the purchase of the business. By working all together as one team, that's definitely enhancing. A strong trading performance from Cory Brothers, as we've mentioned. Brexit-related and import competitors. Disposal of Wavespec, that meant in acquiring, obviously. Yes, it had its time, but it, we probably hung on for too long to a certain extent.
It wasn't necessarily complementing the shipbroking business. Current trading and outlook. Continued strength in dry cargo, as we said, and sale and purchase and securities. Recovery tanker market, which we expect to happen as the world comes back to normal. Inevitably, oil will be back in demand. We mentioned there on the financials there as well. You know, prospects, a bit faster growth in logistics as a result of planned first fruits from the JV. Trading in line with full-year expectations.
That's fantastic. Thank you, James, Nick, thank you indeed for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, do please continue to submit your questions using the Q&A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Just while the team take a few moments to review those investor questions submitted already, I'd like to remind you, the recording of the presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can be accessed via Investor Dashboard on the Investor Meet Company platform. I'd also like to remind you that your feedback is important to the company. Immediately after the presentation has ended, you'll be redirected to the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the company can better understand your views and expectations. James and Nick, investors have submitted a number of questions during the presentation.
Perhaps if I could just hand back to you, Nick, to read out the questions where appropriate to do so and either take them or direct them to James, and that would be fantastic. Thank you.
Paul, just make sure everyone realizes we don't be embarrassed to ask, you know, simple basic questions to understand our business because the worst thing I feel is the fact that we don't understand what we do and how we make our revenue.
It makes it harder for you to understand what we've said the whole thing about.
Ab-absolutely.
Thanks.
Please, you know, ask away any questions that the team here will be greatly happy to take. Thank you.
James, maybe I'll suggest the first one we should take is from Henry. How does the FFA desk fit in with the physical broking desks, or do they operate independently?
Are these questions on here as well? Am I expected to see these questions as well?
Well, yeah. I've got them in front of me, so if I'll read them out, James, if that's okay.
That's Henry from Cherry Wares. Henry Wares.
Is that, how does the FFA desk fit in with the physical broking desks, or do they operate independently?
No, I mean, look, the FFA desk is important for the traders because they're hedging their risk on physical. It's difficult for a trader to understand because of the volatility of the markets. They will be buying a forward curve position to protect against a forward delivery physical deal. Now, obviously, for the broker on the physical desk, he'll be watching where the forward curve is, whether it's a negative or a positive. Normally a sign of a positive purchase on the forward FFA curve is normally, it's a feeling the fact that the market is probably gonna be moving up as opposed to be down. If it's a sell forward or selling on the front position, there's a good chance that demand is coming off. It definitely needs to run.
It works very much in the dry cargo FFA desk, as well as it does on our wet FFA desk and our LPG desk. We're obviously growing those into other markets as the traders want protection. What we're seeing also, that the trading desks, the freight desks within the trading houses are able to take positions to hedge against their own internal movements in trading. It's used in a number of ways, but it's a hugely liquid market now than over the last 15, 20 years.
Thanks, James. I'll take the next one, which is about the Cory Brothers joint venture from David. I wasn't clear in terms of what I said earlier. The joint venture isn't coming to an end. It's the actual execution of the joint venture which is coming to an end. Sorry if that was misleading. The follow-up question on there is, are there any anticipated additional new international office openings? Well, we are looking at adding to certain offices that we've got. Geneva and Athens are important. Dubai, Houston in the States. Rather than any new offices, I think we're...
Those offices are all still fairly small, and therefore, we're more likely to be looking to add to those offices new brokers than any new offices per se. Then the third part of that question is, are we looking at restructuring our loans prior to possible interest rate increases? We are in regular discussions with our main bank as HSBC. And we'll be looking at a new set of facilities sometime over the next 12 months. In terms of the liabilities for the acquisitions we've made, we have just restructured that, and we have some protection in it against interest rate increases already. Next question. James, one of your favorite subjects, I know. How will the shipbroking market be affected by the green hydrogen propulsion and transport?
Okay. Well, I don't think we're quite there yet on hydrogen transportation yet. That's a bit far away from where we are today. I mean, I've had meetings with, you know, I did a lot of new building business with the Koreans, and I was seeing the head of the Dubai office only a couple of days ago. You know, yes, there is some 50% of their present order book on dual fuel basis, which is predominantly basically either LNG or LPG dual fuel as opposed to normal fuel oil. We're seeing recently with A.P. Moller-Maersk, obviously looking at methanol. Now, there is obviously subjects.
You know, we're seeing the focus of this dual fuel being LNG, methanol, ammonia, and there is the talk of hydrogen down the line, but we're too far away from that yet to see where it's all gonna go. It's a massive change of the way. On top of that, the owners aren't necessarily wanting to invest because they're unsure themselves which way the market's gonna go. It's a long way to go before we start seeing hydrogen, personally.
The next question I'll try and answer, and James, please, you can add your thoughts afterwards. The question is around, from Colin, why there is so much port congestion at the moment. I think the majority of it is either a hangover from COVID disruption or the result of continuing COVID disruption. While the ports in Europe are generally free of lockdowns and issues caused by COVID, it's not the case in a lot of the Asian ports where there are still ongoing quarantines and closures and delays in ships moving in and out, which has just meant that the backlog from all of the disruption that started 18 months ago has just never been cleared.
The situation as we run up obviously to the festive season is, you know, adding more pressure onto an already delicate and difficult scenario.
Yeah, let me add to that. I mean, what we're seeing, you know, as you can imagine, there's crew changes. So we see, you know, the crew change every three or six months. That's been difficult because obviously for moving it out various different parts of the world. You know, on the big VLCC tankers, they're normally discharging offshores. They're not having to come into the inner ports. On the container ships and the dry cargo ships, they're having to come in, and that's where it creates the problem. You see the crew changes, it's congestion, it's suddenly we're seeing some. One minute a port in China gets closed because of COVID. We've had ships just, you know, loading in West Africa.
Suddenly one person goes down with COVID, then the whole ship has to go into quarantine, crew changes. It's a never ending story of problems. It's not easy to move, you know, 20 people from, you know, into a different part of the world, say for example, like Nigeria, to have a crew change. It creates a lot of problems. With that it goes. There's obviously continued issues with potentially tank top scenarios at loading areas or discharging areas where the demand for the cargo is short. It creates a massive nightmare. Annie mentioned recently it's gonna take another year or so before this is basically unrevealed and untraveled.
Next question is from Mike, which is how do we move to a carbon neutral business? James has already given part of the answer to that around the sort of alternative fuels. One of the areas that we are looking at and is a top potential opportunity for our business to grow is providing carbon offsetting and alternative structures for our customers. We are looking at whether we can set up a carbon trading desk within the business so that when an increasingly frequent charterers or the ship owners are looking for measures that will allow them to be carbon neutral, we can actually support them with it.
In terms of our own business, we have ongoing work on an ESG strategy, which will include how we will look to make Braemar itself a more greener business rather than the industry in which we work. We'll be publishing some of that with our annual report next year. Next question perhaps is from Henry, which is what is our capital allocation strategy? Well, I mean, I think from the things we've talked about today, we've made it very clear that we will be focusing our investment within the shipbroking business.
We've realized cash where we can from the other businesses and the chart that we showed earlier showing where our business is strong and where there are opportunities to make it stronger. It gives you a clue in terms of where we'll be looking to invest, in which desks and in which geographies. What we've made very clear over the last 12 months is that our focus will be on shipbroking with the corporate finance arm as an adjunct. We'll not be looking to diversify away from that, but rather diversify within the shipbroking markets as James was talking about on those revenue pie charts earlier. Right. Are there any questions here I've missed?
There's a couple of questions actually about our share price recently. Clearly we've, you know, we've seen since the middle of the year, the price come off quite significantly. That has coincided with the dry cargo market turning down a bit in the last month. I think there's been an impact on many shipping stocks, including Clarkson. We, you know, other than that, there's not much we can really say. We are trying to lay out our strategy for growing our business, and trust that if we do that job well, the share price will look after itself.
Yeah, from my perspective as well, the fact is obviously as you can see how we simplified the business. I mean, I was asked questions two years ago of how do we present who Braemar is? I said, Well, it's quite confusing for me being the Chief Executive Officer of the shipbroking side, is if I can't answer that question, so it's gonna be hard to obviously talk about it to an outside investor. Now we've simplified the business, it should be easier for any investor to invest into this and understand what we do and how we make our revenue. Secondly, obviously you can see we've upgraded our, on recent RNSs, we've returned back to dividend.
We've got the forward order book is perhaps at, you know, one of the all-time highs of $60 million, you know, and the business is very much streamlined. Our age profile is its youngest. Our KPI for brokers is at, you know, one of the highest. For us, you know, I just think we're being undervalued, but of course, you know, that's our job to rebuild confidence within our investors and to grow the business and prove what we can do.
Next question is from John. Do we envisage using M&A to accelerate our growth? I think the answer is yes. We have an ambition of doubling the size of the business, and we think we can go quite a long way toward that with organic growth by bringing in teams, hiring new brokers, and increasing our spread across desks and geographies that way. Inevitably, if we are to succeed in doubling the size of the business, we will need some M&A. There are some smaller broking shops out there that we could look at identifying for acquisition, and I think that's inevitable as we go through this next three- or four-year period.
The follow-up to that is would we allow retail investors to participate in any fundraising? I think we're a bit early for that sort of level of detail. As you may have seen, we've changed brokers recently to Investec. And when the time comes, we'll be certainly looking to maximize the opportunities that come out of any fund raise by raising money from all sources. You know, watch this space on that one. Right. We have one more question from David, which is quite a specific one. Do we see any negative effects on the shipping routes due to the Chinese expansion into the South China Sea?
Not one I think I can answer, but James, is there any thoughts on that one?
Yeah. Say it, say that last bit again. Sorry.
The Chinese expansion into the South China Sea.
I mean, all I can say to that is shipping has been going for thousands of years. It's a form of transportation of goods for an infrastructure growth. Anything that any kind of rebuilding in any part of the world, whether that be in the Middle East or in China, there's gonna be demand for shipping. All that does is put the demand, supply and demand scenario. Anything like that is a positive. I mean, you know, shipping is, you know, sometimes we have to be a bit careful as a broker because sometimes when we see disasters around the world or impact through, whether that be through war or whatever, shipping seems to become.
You know, you saw this year only alone when you saw the Suez Canal close, suddenly all the forward curves on freight futures market rallied. You know, this is what happens, and as a broker, we sort of tend to sort of benefit from that. Not that we wanna publicly announce that, but that's the reality of it. Any kind of growth demand is gonna be good for the shipbroker.
Right. One further question just come in from David. Are we seeing material wage pressures, and how easy are we finding it to attract new brokers and teams to join us? I think you said earlier.
Uh-
Sorry, James.
Yeah. No, sorry. Yeah. I mean, look, I think that just to sort of cut in there, Nick, sorry. I mean, look, the broking business is pretty standard really across the broking market on the basic salaries. You know, we know roughly where we are and we know where our competition is. The business is driven by a reward of a bonus. Where we now add, and it's not just about us as Braemar, it's where our client base wants. Our client base is liking the fact that we're a public company. We have part of our business regulated. The brokers understand the different sectors. They're protected on their KYC departments, compliance, et cetera.
What we're seeing now is we're able to attract the brokers from the smaller shops and in fact, it puts pressure on the smaller shops. You know, we saw one tanker broker who was quite a player in the market, but purely was tankers, closed down in September, and we took some of their staff. You know, I think it's only a benefit for us where we are now, and I feel that, you know, we can control that. What I'm saying is the fact that it's not necessarily about the money to dangle in front of the. It's enticing brokers to come and work for us. They feel in a way that by working for us, they can increase their revenue. Hope that answers the question.
Yeah, as you were speaking, James, another question came in around what our competitive advantages are, which I think actually a number of them you were just running through there.
Yes, sir. Yeah, exactly. Look, I think that, you know, look, trust me, I've worked for a big company, Clarkson. I've worked for a small company. ACM was very, very small. You know, we now are in the position. You'd be surprised how many people that left maybe at the merge in 2014 who have now come back, or the ones that left who've now realized they made a mistake and maybe we don't want back. I think people, as I say, you know, realizing that the name goes a long way, you know. Trust me, I've traveled around the world in the 1990s and, you know, as a small broking shop called ACM, and luckily I got to not much further than the reception.
Now, when I travel around the world, you know, as Braemar, I'm sort of ushered into the boardroom, and the various clients come in to see me. There's a completely different factor there. Yes, many people, many of the interdealer brokers have tried to get into ship broking and found that it's a very much a relationship-driven business, and they find it difficult, and they've given up. That's why we feel quite strong where we are, and it's why we're quite confident in our growth plan.
James, Nick, I think you've covered off so many questions. Just in case any further questions do come through, of course you can respond to these, post the event as well. Perhaps James, on that basis, I could just ask you for a closing snapshot to conclude before we redirect the investors to give you some feedback.
Yeah, no, exactly. I want to emphasize that, you know, how our commission of a broking shop works, I mean, we predominantly it's 1.25% on the freight and it's 1% on the S&P. You can imagine the higher price of a ship, it can go from, you know, we see ships go recently from $10 million to $60 million in a period of a year. You can imagine the commission for the brokerages goes up to increase, which increases our revenue. At the moment we're in a great spot. We're feeling very confident about the business, where we're going to. The hard work has been done over the last four years, four or five years, and now we can only look forward.
I think I feel confident, understand the business and being leading by example. Sure, one of the large revenue makers for the business. That's how I entice the staff to come, entice brokers to come and join us and hold what we have, and we're quite proud of where we are today. All right?
That's fantastic. James, Nick, thank you for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close the session? You should be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete and is greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Braemar Shipping Services, thank you for attending today. That concludes today's session.
Thanks a lot. Thank you, everyone.