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Prudential Asset Management Asia (Pama) has announced the establishment of a Bermuda-based marine container equipment leasing and associated services company called Gateway Container International.

  Prudential will invest nearly US$25 million in the company, while Japanese investors led by Itochu Corp and Showa Lease Co will pump in $27.5 million.

  'We were attracted to this start-up investment by the entrepreneurial spirit of the outstanding management team that Raphael Che, former president of Genstar Container Corp, has assembled,' managing director Agnes Wong said.

  The company planned to buy 50,000 20 ft dry-freight containers annually for lease to its customers.

  'We have already placed orders and expect to take delivery of our first batch of containers next month,' she said.

  Ms Wong, who is also Prudential's chief investment officer, said Gateway already had secured the agreement of customers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Europe to take the first batch of containers.

  'The majority of our customers are shipping lines based in Asia,' she said.

  Gateway would initially be carrying out term lease business whereby shipping lines took over the boxes for a period of either two or three years and returned them when the lease expired, Ms Wong said.

  The company expected to carry out master leases or short-term leases within the next three years.

  Before the master-lease business could be established, there had to be a great deal of co-ordination with shipping lines and a linking of information with them so that the boxes could be tracked and traced.

  Ms Wong said Gateway was entering the market at a good time as the cost of dry-freight containers was low - US$1,750 to $1,900 per teu (20 ft equivalent unit) - and the company could obtain credit on favourable terms.

  'We think it is a viable business,' she said.

  The business had been controlled by giants such as Transamerica and Genstar, and shipping lines welcomed new leasing companies as it gave them choice.

  Gateway would have its regional headquarters in Singapore because the company's vice-president, Allen Ng, lived there.

  'In terms of choice, both Hong Kong and Singapore are equally suitable as we have customers in both territories,' Ms Wong said.

  Raphael Che, the founder of Gateway, said half the 9.5 million containers in the world were owned directly by shipping companies and half by leasing companies.

  He said the timing was perfect for a mid-sized company run by a professional management team that was global in outlook.

  Pama is a subsidiary of Prudential Investment Asia, the Asian investment and institutional fund management unit of the Prudential Insurance Co of America.



Prudential arm sets up firm to lease containers