Britannia P&I’s Preferred “Hard Brexit” Location Option

15th December 2017Phil Page

Following the 23 June 2016 referendum and the UK’s triggering of Article 50 on 29 March 2017, Britannia’s Board has been considering plans to preserve the ability of the Association to write non-UK EU business post Brexit (i.e. to preserve the current benefits of passporting). Possible restrictions on the freedom of movement of staff between the UK and EU would not currently have a material impact on the Association, although this will be monitored.

It is hoped that discussions between the UK and the remaining EU states will allow for continued passporting or a transition arrangement. In the meantime, Britannia’s plans assume a worst-case of a “hard Brexit” and the loss of passporting from 29 March 2019.

With the advice of third party consultants and having engaged with various EU regulators, Britannia’s Board has now instructed the Managers (Tindall Riley (Britannia) Limited) to focus on Luxembourg as the preferred option. The structure envisaged is the maintenance of Britannia as a UK domiciled insurer and the creation of a new EU (Luxembourg) domiciled insurer. Both insurers (Britannia UK and Britannia Europe) would be owned by a UK domiciled parent company. This will preserve the nature of the Association as a single entity i.e. to maintain a common approach to risk appetite, underwriting, investment, reserving and operational procedures.

The Managers will engage further with the Association’s consultants and legal advisers together with the PRA (UK’s insurance regulator) and CAA (Luxembourg’s insurance regulator). It is envisaged that a formal application to establish Britannia Europe will be made in early 2018 to enable the insurer to be licenced and operationally ready by the end of 2018 and in good time for the 20 February 2019 renewal.

At this stage it is not envisaged that a Part VII transfer will be required.

KVH and Pilipinas Global Network Limited to Bring Philippine Basketball Association Game Coverage to Merchant Ships

15th December 201715th December 2017Phil Page

Starting next week, seafarers can enjoy coverage of Asia’s popular professional basketball league games via KVH’s innovative content delivery service

MIDDLETOWN, RI – December 14, 2017 – KVH Industries, Inc., (Nasdaq: KVHI), and Pilipinas Global Network Limited (PGNL) today announced a deal to bring coverage of Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) full games to merchant ships.

Under the terms of the agreement, KVH will distribute PBA games for the 43^rd and 44^th PBA seasons, which begin with the Philippine Cup on December 17, 2017. A men’s professional basketball league, the PBA was the first such league in Asia and its popularity throughout the region is widespread. However, many of those fans miss out on seeing games because they serve onboard commercial vessels; throughout the global shipping industry, Filipinos comprise the single greatest number of seafarers. The PBA games will be delivered via satellite to vessels subscribed to KVH’s SPORTSlink^TM and IP-MobileCast^TM content delivery service for multicasting news, sports, and entertainment at sea. Onboard, seafarers will be able to access the full PBA games on mobile devices, desktops, and televisions, enjoying the basketball action without adding communications costs or affecting vessel communications performance. “PGNL is devoted to bringing the PBA closer to every Filipino overseas. This partnership with KVH is a step toward reaching out to seafarers who would want to experience the PBA while they’re away from home,” says Ernesto D. Sta. Maria, Jr., PGNL president and CEO. “We work hard to make sure that more Filipinos all over the world get to enjoy quality sports content from PGNL.”

ICS Chairman Commends China’s Positive Engagement with IMO

5th December 2017Debra Massey

In his keynote speech to the Marintec conference in Shanghai today, Mr Poulsson welcomed China’s close adherence to the implementation of national maritime regulations, applicable to visiting foreign-flag ships, in a manner consistent with the international maritime safety and pollution prevention Conventions adopted by IMO.

He said that China generally avoided the tendency – unfortunately displayed by some other IMO Member States – towards adopting unilateral shipping regulations at variance to rules agreed internationally.

EU Member States, for example, despite what were understood to be undertakings to the contrary, appear to be pressing ahead with the implementation of a regional CO2 data collection system for ships (including visiting non-EU flag ships) which is very different to that agreed by IMO for global application.