Lloyd's List 100: Movers, Shakers, Politicians and Pirates

Who controls shipping? It's not an Easy Question to Answer, but the Writers, Analysts and Editors at Lloyd's List Have put Together an all-new 'Top 100' Supplement, Ranking the Biggest Influencers in the Industry

LONDON, December 14, 2010 - Who controls shipping? It's not an easy question to answer. However,
Lloyd's List - the flagship news, information and data source for the global
shipping industry - has unveiled its Lloyd's List Top 100, ranking the most
influential people in shipping with insightful, intriguing, and sometimes
surprising results.

A billionaire shipping magnate shares top five honours with the Minister
of Transport for China and a Somali pirate.

"Assessing influence and power in an industry like shipping is always
going to be a tricky and largely subjective business," explains Richard
Meade, news editor at Lloyd's List. "Big money and bigger egos mingle with
subtle political pull and barely visible power brokers who operate behind the
scenes.

"Added to that is the fact that despite our own shorthand reference to
shipping as an industry, it is not. In truth, it's a collection of distinct
markets that operate independently and share little more than Archimedes
principle, a mutual pursuit of profit and respect for the forces of supply
and demand."

"Governments are the only place where a single person could have
influence over all of shipping and right now governments don't get much more
influential than China's when it comes to shipping," continues Meade. "So a
man who does not own or operate ships and who has never even been to sea is
our number one influencer: Li Shenglin, Minister of Transport for China."

Numbers two and three are more conventional - Nils Andersen, CEO of
Maersk and John Fredriksen the billionaire shipping magnate who owns and runs
companies worth $24 billion.

Number four on the Lloyd's List Top 100 - sure to raise eyebrows through
the industry and beyond - is the Somali pirate with the assumed name, Garaad
Mohammed.

"Mohammed's position on this list is representative of the influence that
pirates currently hold over the shipping industry, rather than the actions of
just one man," says Meade. "Those appearing below him in this list may feel
aggrieved to be deemed less influential than a gun-toting criminal, but the
impact that pirates have had on the industry cannot be underestimated."

Lloyd's List Top 100 addresses the market with sections on the Top 10 and
Top 11-100, as well as provides individual Top 10 lists for each of seven
sub-categories including classification, insurance, regulation, law, finance,
ports & logistics and offshore.

The supplement also offers readers a host of Lloyd's List Information
generated statistics based around the current state of the world fleet,
including figures, graphs and charts on the world fleet by shiptype,
ownership nationality, age range by vessel type, number of casualties and
breakdowns of each of the world region's fleets.

First and foremost, however, the Lloyd's List Top 100 is about the people
in shipping. Every industry has its movers and shakers, but few remain as
personality driven as shipping. Although the industry is immense in terms of
turnover, it's a small world in that many of the key figures know each other
- at least by reputation. In shipping, one of the few remaining industries in
which your word is your bond, the character and reputation of shipping
leaders is a matter of constant discussion. However influence is an elusive
and relative concept.

"While we would like to tell you that we developed a sophisticated series
of algorithms to objectively assess the influence and power of all the
industry personalities we considered for this list, we can't," admits Meade.
"However, we make no excuses for the fact that the truth is that this is a
highly subjective assessment borne out of months of heated discussions within
the Lloyd's List newsroom and it is based on our collective expertise and
personal opinions."

Ranking the influence of a containership owner against a pirate was never
going to be an exact science and the newspaper's team of writers and analysts
are under no illusions that they have produced a list that everyone will
agree with. What has been produced is a list that is fascinating,
illuminating and uniquely 'of the moment'.

"The list would not have looked like this last year and we fully expect
the landscape to have changed significantly when we tackle this again in the
future," explains Meade. "We hope that those interested in shipping enjoy
reading it as much as we enjoyed compiling it."

Please see www.lloydslist.com for a full copy of the Lloyd's List
Top 100.

For further information and/or an interview with Richard Meade, please contact: kirstin.stocker at informa.com, +44(0)7716756453 or richard.meade at informa.com