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Market Leaders Team Up To Form Definitive On-Line Chartering Exchange

London, 10 May 2000 - Leading players in shipping, e-commerce and finance have today unveiled ShipDesk, a comprehensive independent chartering exchange. ShipDesk has been under development by leading shipping investment house Tufton Oceanic, US-based electronic marketplace developer OptiMark, antfactory, a leading pan-European e-business accelerator, and global private equity firm Whitney & Co., since last year. ShipDesk has appointed Dirk Langeveld, former CEO of Tufton Oceanic, as CEO.

ShipDesk aims to become the definitive independent chartering exchange, benefiting all market participants. The project brings together a strong management team with extensive multi-sector shipping expertise, next generation technology, blue chip financial backing and proven record in the successful development of e-commerce companies.

ShipDesk is an independent electronic exchange and analytical resource, designed to serve the current and future requirements of all participants in the global maritime marketplace. ShipDesk offers a highly secure and confidential "total freighting environment" from underlying commodity trade through post-fixture and voyage completion. The system is designed to be intuitive and flexible, providing a fully customisable interface and integrating with client's existing systems.

"ShipDesk will lead the migration of the $150 billion vessel chartering market to a fully screen-based environment" said ShipDesk CEO Dirk Langeveld. Forrester Research has estimated that 70% of shipping transactions will be conducted online by 2005.

After initial development by ShipDesk, majority ownership of the exchange will gradually transfer to its industry members, based on liquidity provided to the market. "Neutrality will be the key to long-term success in this space," says James Lucas, Business Development Director, "and ShipDesk brings together independent blue-chip partners with a winning combination of skills and experience."

Langeveld brings 30 years of senior management experience in tanker, dry bulk and container shipping with Stolt-Nielsen, Marine Transport Lines, PLM and Sea-Land. He was formerly CEO of Tufton Oceanic, where he remains a director. Langeveld's rapidly growing team, now numbering 26, includes:

ShipDesk's Chief Technology Officer, Lars Hjaltman, was CTO at Gearbulk, the innovative bulk carrier operator, and has over 13 years of IT and Internet experience.
Content Director, Fred Doll was Director of H. Clarkson and head of its London shipping consultancy business and previously with Exxon's chartering group.
Business Development Director James Lucas, with over 15 years worldwide shipping experience has spent the last 12 months developing shipping e-commerce applications and formerly was co-founder and Managing Director of Aries Indotrans.
Christoph Toepfer, Product Development Director, was previously with Tufton Oceanic, ADM-Toepfer and Jacq. Pierot.
Peter Rygaard Andersen, VP Marketing/PR was formerly head of marketing at BIMCO, the world's largest shipping association.
Jens-Erik Olsen heads ShipDesk's Hong Kong office and was formerly Managing Director of Torm Asia and other major international shipping companies.

ShipDesk has partners from shipping, technology and finance that are second to none. They include:

Tufton Oceanic is a leading shipping investment house focussed on the Shipping and Oil Services industries, known for innovative financial solutions and timely investments in emerging sectors. Tufton is highly experienced in shipping business. Tufton shareholders include US-based GE Capital, and NIB Capital (formerly DNIB) of The Hague.

OptiMark is building a patented matching engine to the ShipDesk exchange. OptiMark, Inc., a privately held company, is a leading provider of exchange solutions to electronic marketplaces and communities globally. OptiMark's broad range of solutions include the simplest browse or auction markets to the most sophisticated exchanges where multiple buyers and sellers trade and negotiate goods and services and value is determined by more than price and quantity alone. OptiMark has proven solutions operating in some of the most demanding markets in the world today including the Nasdaq Stock Market for US OTC equities and the Pacific Exchange for US listed equities. OptiMark's investors include General Atlantic Partners, SOFTBANK, Aon Group, American Century, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and PaineWebber.

IBM, the leading developer of integrated on-line market exchanges, who has been working with ShipDesk for the past three months, provides system integration.

antfactory, who this week announced a $350m facility made available to them by Whitney & Co., CVC Capital and Citicorp Venture Capital, is a leading European e-business operating and investment company with offices in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Jersey. antfactory is supporting the development of the ShipDesk business with capital and management.

ShipDesk also owns e-shipping, whose pioneering netshipbrokers.com is the only successful first generation Internet chartering site. Founded in 1997 the Piraeus based site has over 2500 registered members from some 90 countries and posts over 4500 new cargoes and 3000 vessel positions per month. "netshipbrokers.com established that web technology could work for smaller players before the larger market participants saw the implications of the Internet. Now that larger players see the opportunity, ShipDesk's vision and full functionality will come into its own." said Langeveld.

Whitney & Co., founded in 1946, pioneered the venture capital business and is today a global leader in the management of alternative assets, with over $5 billion invested in private equity, public equity, hedge funds, and private and public debt.

McKinsey and Company are corporate strategy advisors to ShipDesk.