The US initial public offering (IPO) market for shipping is sick and there are plenty of theories to go around as to the cause of the illness.

Could “the Norwegian over-the-counter [OTC] bug” be one of the strains that has spread across the water and induced coughing, sneezing and shipping fatigue on Wall Street?

That novel notion was introduced by executives of Gener8 Maritime when TradeWinds interviewed them in New York recently — and is finding both agreement and resistance among a cross-section of equity experts.

Gener8