Macquarie Specialised Investment Solutions (MSIS) has created a new London-based business to arrange export credit agency (ECA) financing for new ship builds.

The company explains that it identified opportunities in the new build ship financing space as “many traditional lenders have retreated from the shipping sector in recent years”.

The business will be headed by Guido Musso (pictured) as managing director and Davide Alessandrini as director.

Musso will be in charge of establishing relationships between Macquarie, ECAs and ship owners and operators. He joins from Citi where he was global head of shipping and offshore, export and agency finance. He previously worked at HSBC in its project and export finance division.

Alessandrini also joins from Citi in Hong Kong, where he was responsible for client and ECA relationship development in Asia, responsible for expanding the ECA shipping business in the region. Before that, he worked at Citi in London on the ECA shipping and shipping risk management teams. His experience also includes a role within the corporate banking arm of Société Générale.