Conference Material Accessible at www.CapitalLinkShipping.com

NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwire) -- 04/02/09 -- The 3rd Annual Capital Link Forum "Invest in International Shipping" took place last week in New York City with tremendous success. The Conference was completely booked with a participation of 742 attendees and with standing room only for most presentations throughout the day. Attendance increased by over 25% from last year, setting a new record.

The level of investor participation demonstrated that shipping remains in the radar of Wall Street despite the overall current market volatility.

The objective of the Forum was to provide investors with a comprehensive review and outlook of the various shipping markets as well as of the participating companies. The Forum also aimed to enhance the information flow between investors and shipping companies and to increase the awareness about shipping as an industry to a wide audience of investors.

CONFERENCE MATERIAL AVAILABLE ON WEBSITE

All conference material, including an audio webcast of the various panels, is accessible on Capital Link's shipping website, at www.CapitalLinkShipping.com

The conference featured panels on several topics of current interest, company presentations and one-on-one meetings between company management and investors.

THE GLOBAL ECONOMY - DEVELOPMENTS AND OUTLOOK

Mr. Guy Verberne -- Head of Economics and Investment Strategy of Fortis Bank Nederland/Global Markets -- gave his view on likely economic developments following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the middle of September of last year.

The 'fear shock' that was the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy gave rise to very aggressive reductions in spending on consumer durables and investments -- both on capital goods and business inventories. These adjustments have taken place on a global scale. As a result we are currently witnessing the sharpest contraction in world industrial production and world trade since World War II.

The good news is that recessions usually don't last very long: the post-war average for the United States stands at 10 months, while the longest recession lasted no more than 16 months. The current US recession ranks among the deepest in post-war history, but it is unlikely to break the record by more than a few months, thanks to assertive government interventions to preserve the banking system, and the very aggressive easing of fiscal and monetary policy. This would imply a return to positive growth rates somewhere around the middle of the year. The Eurozone economy should also return to positive growth around mid-year, but its recovery will be much slower than that of the United States, due to an inflexible labor market, and high exposure to Eastern Europe.

Emerging economies as a whole are much better positioned than in the past to cope with the withdrawal of foreign capital, although countries with high dependence on commodity exports and those with large current account deficits are suffering badly. They also have much more leeway than developed economies for fiscal and monetary policy easing. With the exception of Eastern Europe -- which needs to restructure -- emerging economies are likely to benefit relatively quickly from a recovery in developed economies.

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE GLOBAL SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY

Mr. Dimitris Vranopoulos, Managing Director of Marine Plus, presented on ''Developments in the global shipbuilding industry'' and mentioned that "With an orderbook of 9653 ships, over 570 million dwt and worth 533 billion dollars will the shipping market go into deeper recession from oversupply of newbuilds? The orderbook is indeed at an all time high, but one needs to consider other ongoing trends as well which will also have a significant impact:

"The orderbook is shrinking -- by over 10 million dwt only in January of this year, as deliveries outpace new orders and demolition of vessels. Scrapping has picked up tremendously since the fourth quarter of 2008 -- up to 10 million dwt only in December -- January of this year. Cancellations from non-performance of inexperienced/greenfield yards, as well as insolvency of greenfield yards will further reduce the order book.

"Owners are actively re-negotiating their contracts with yards, and securing delayed delivery, as well as ''negotiated'' cancellations, especially for bulker projects. Prudent owners and established shipbuilders with good pedigree will survive the current crisis. Shipping is a long-term business with huge capital expenditure, and shipbuilding is the means of renewing the world fleet with better, greener and more efficient vessels."

FLEET QUALITY AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

The ship Classification Society Germanischer Lloyd addressed the issue of Quality in Ship Building and Operations demonstrating the impact of Quality in Class Rules on vessel earnings and investment performance. GL's Business Development Manager - Harry Vordokas presented with empirical evidence the value added to the final product through thorough engineering know-how and quality surveys. He pointed out "Whilst with changed market conditions the opportunity to renegotiate terms of financial calculations is possible, such is not available with the completed ship in terms of quality of building standards and workmanship. GL's deep roots in Engineering and R&D, in addition to its worldwide acknowledged expertise in shipbuilding know-how, is reflected in its Rules and Superiority in Quality performance."

BANK FINANCING IN TODAY'S MARKETS

Mr. Daniel C. Rodgers, Partner at Watson, Farley & Williams (New York) LLP moderated a panel on this topic with Mr. Harris Antoniou, CEO Energy, Commodities and Transportation - Fortis Bank Nederland (Holding) N.V. and Mr. Robin Das, Deputy Global Head of Shipping - HSH Nordbank, who stressed that shipping remains a core activity for his bank.

Mr. Rodgers mentioned: "I was honored to have had the opportunity to moderate the panel on Bank Financing in Today's Markets. Bank financing is a critical component to shipping and I could not have asked for more thorough or forthright responses than those Harris Antoniou of Fortis and Robin Das of HSH Nordbank provided at the conference. Both of these gentlemen had the difficult task of explaining in clear terms the complicated issues that have arisen over the past few months and have so greatly changed the landscape for ship lending. As a ship finance lawyer I was very much encouraged by the positive outlook that both Harris and Robin espoused and I am confident that the ship lending industry remains in very good hands."

Harris Antoniou, CEO of Energy Commodities & Transportation of Fortis Bank Nederland gave an overview of the syndication markets for shipping and noted that "Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers the syndication markets for shipping loans basically stalled in a trend that seems will stay with us for the remainder of 2009 at least.

"Level of activity was close zero also in the US shipping markets.