The initial public offering market should open up for shipping in 2018 or 2019, two analysts said at a TradeWinds conference.

Deutsche Bank’s Amit Mehrotra and UBS’s Spiro Dounis both said that the window for launching IPOs is closed now because of the spread between net asset value and stock prices remains too wide.

Shipowners will push into public markets at a time when their shares are likely to sell at a wide discount to the value of their fleets.

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