Protagonists of 2014
Blue Wall Shipping Limited invests in modern dry cargo vessels
Joint ventures between Greek shipping names and alternative hedge fund / private equity inv estors are very popular today in shipping.
One of the first shipping names that entered into this new business model are the brothers George & Stathis Gour domichalis who have over 5o years of collective expertise and knowledge in the management/operation of various shipping ventures.
According to a recent exclusive interview of George Gourdomichalis, this new business v enture has already invested approximately $220m in modern dry cargo vessels. The fleet owned by Blue Wall Shipping is comprised of 4 handysize, 2 handymax and 2 supramax vessels, with an average age of under 9 y ears old and also has 4 Bdelta 43 eco-type handymax v essels on order at Qingshan Shipyard of China with deliv eries planned in the beginning of 2016 and 2017. All vessels are under the management of Phoenix Shipping & Trading S.A. which manages one more handy and a
panamax for other clients.
Blue Wall Shipping took advantage of the attr active ship values over the past 24 months acquiring handysize, handymax & supramax vessels, a segment which the company believes has the best supply/demand dynamics, is less v olatile and that the company’s management team has extensiv e expertise and deep knowledge. According to Mr. Gourdomichalis, the company’s chartering strategy aims at short to medium term employment of not more than 6 to 12 month periods as the market is on a medium to long term upward sloping curve. It must be noted that Blue Wall Shipping has focused on high quality assets and efficient manag ement optimizing value for its shareholders.
Mr. Gourdomichalis remarked that Blue Wall Shipping was established at the right time of the shipping cycle at the end of a difficult 4 year period from te end of 2008 into early 2013 and therefore is very well positioned for a recovery in the shipping markets when both values and earnings pick up in earnest and additionally, the company, provides for excellent corpor ate governance and transparency with no fee leeakage.
Finally, Mr. Gourdomichalis stated that Blue Wall Shipping is in a position to exploit new opportunities in or der to expand the company’s fleet through acquisitions and mergers with other market players thus crating accretive value for the company’s shareholders.
Bluewater is the new shipping investment venture
The traditional Greek shipping family Alexandratos and Guiseppe Giano, Chairman of Euroxx join forces to create a new shipping venture that aims at acquiring dry bulk vessels. According to George Alexandratos, the new venture is called Bluewater Marine and has bought the first vessel after careful and right review of the market.
The 76.000dwt bulker (built 2007)it was acquired for around $20m and has been built in Imabari built. The ship will go under the name “Blue Chip”. It must be noted that investment fund George Alexandratos and his sister, Katerina, currently hold a 30\% stake.
The new joint venture Bluewater Marine is a Cayman Islands based fund that has been set up under the guidance of Euroxx, the lar gest independent financial services company in Greece and second only to Eurobank Securities in terms of market share on the Athens Stock Exchange.
According to Mr Guiseppe Giano, chairman of Euroxx, his company is contributing the financial and managerial background, while the Alexandratos family will put in the shipping management expertise.
Ernst & Young is serving as auditor to the fund, Reed Smith in London is acting as its lawy er and, in the Cayman Islands, international law firm Maples and Calder is administr ator of the fund. To date, Bluewater has raised $27m and Mr. Giano says the target for equity is $100m. “We have in place the bank facility of around 55\% to 60\% compared to the equity”, said Mr. Giano and Mr. Alexandratos to recent statements at TRADEWINDS.
The lifespan of the fund is set at five plus two years and the participants are confident that within that time frame it will be able to generate profits for its shareholders. It must be noted that in 2010, the family company of Alexandratos, Apollonia Lines, had five vessels. Three had been bought in 2002 and the company started selling in 2008.
Bluewater will focus on handysize to kamsarmax tonnage, with more concentration on the larger sizes, and wants to build a fleet with an average age from six to eight y ears old. “Our aim is to giv e the highest possible IRR (internal rate of return) at the shortest term dur ation”, he said, noting that purchasing a newbuilding means y ou need to have it in your hands for more than 10 to 15 years, while the fund’s horizon is the next seven years.
Although it chose a Japanese built ship as its first acquisition Bluewater is also looking at top-tier Chinese yards. Mr. Giano says that once the market picks up, the company intends to go for a listing, probably in New York or Oslo. Otherwise the simplest way to fund would be to sell the assets, he adds.
EastMed has expanded its fleet in the containership sector
Despite the historicallyweak freight rates in thesector of containerships,Eastern Mediterraneanexpanded its fleet ofcontainerships expectingmore positive developmentsin the field.It must be reminded thatEastMed entered the boxshipsegment at the end of 2009 with the purchaseof the 1.740teu “Elbella” (built 2006). Since then, it has booked nine boxships of which three have already been delivered in 2013 the other three vessels have been delivered in 2014 and the remaining three are under construction at Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard for delivery in 2015. EastMed has recently ordered a pair of 1.800teu vessels at the Taipei listed Taiwan’s Chinas State Shipbuilding Corp. EastMed expects to take delivery of the duo in the second and third quarters of 2016. EastMed is investing in the feederships as according to the market fundamentals the sector is underbuilt. On the drybulk sector the latest acquisition of Eastern Mediterranean Maritime was a trio of handymax bulkers from Sanko Steamship. The company bought the 51.000dwt “Sanko Marble ” and “Sanko Mercury” (both built at 2010) as w ell as the “Sanko Mermaid” (built 2009). The company currently controls 19 modern dry bulk vessels in its fleet and has a further tw o ultramaxes on order at Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group with delivery dates late next year. On the wet sector, Eastmed controls a modern fleet of 23 tanker
vessels which consist of 6 VLCCs, 6 afr amax, 11 MR & handysize (clean & dirty). The present order-book consists of four LR2 vessels built at Daewoo’s shipbuilding facilities in Mangalia with deliv ery dates within second half of 2015, and on the crude sector a pair of VLCCs contracted at JMU shipyard, scheduled for delivery late 2016 onwards.
Latsco as part of its long term strategy expands further into the LPG and oil products sectors
Carrying on a traditional that spans over 70 years the grandson of the legendary shipowner and entrepreneur Captain John S. Latsis, Paris Kassidokostas – Latsis, has taken over the helm of the family’s shipping interests. The company has this year ordered and/or taken delivery of 12 new building vessels. Latsco will within the next 18 months own a fleet of 14 modern product carriers (MRs and LR2s) and 7 VLGCs. Paris Kassidokostas – Latsis is a young open minded, visionary businessman who aspires to driv e the family shipping business forward while at the same time remains committed to the traditional values of his predecessors. In a recent interview he eluded that Latsco w ould as one of its options also explore the potential of a future listing on one of the major stock exchanges. The primary focus though as always is to maintain the sterling reputation the company enjoys in the industry through its unrivalled commitment to safety, efficiency, reliability and environmental responsibility which is in no small part achieved, ensured and safeguarded by the human resources the company has invested in (on board and ashore) over the years and who have been the driving force behind a culture of “continuously raising the bar” in as far as the quality of transportation services it provides.
Product Shipping & Tradingexploits attractive opportunities in tanker Market
The challenging shipping market of the last years has created excellent opportunities for further growth and new constructive partnerships. The establishment of Product Shipping & Trading in the beginning of 2013 reflects the new challenges and the future potential of the shipping market. The company is supported by the joint venture of Petros Pappas family interests company Oceanbulk and US equity fund Oaktree Capital. Mr. Stylianos Siafakas, Chief Operating Officer of Product Shipping & Trading, has recently described the company’s impressive course and the future plans of the company. According to Mr. Siafakas “Product Shipping & Trading has a strong background and history in shipping as the tanker arm of the Oce anbulk Group. The company initiated its preparation of incorporation in 2011 while was officially established in the end of 2012. Today, it operates all types of tankers from Handies, MRs to VLCCs.
The operated fleet comprises of 22 modern tankers with an average age of fleet around 8 years which are managed also commercially by a very qualified and experienced staff. We are also under negotiations with Far Eastern Shipyards for signing newbuilding contracts and supervising the construction of the vessels. In the meantime we are looking for new market opportunities at attractive values”. Mr. Siafakass told that the challenging shipping market of the last years gave the opportunity to our company to expand its managed fleet with new vessels which were purchased by our principals at attractive prices”.
Commenting on the Product Shipping & T rading’s chartering policy he disclosed that: “it is shared between the spot and short-term time charter market in order to optimize our vessels’ employment rate and income. We co-operate with 1st class charterers who have recognized and appreciated the quality and reliability of our services”. Mr. Siafakas also commented on the possibility of the company to grow through a public listing in the Stock Exchange and diversifying to new shipping sectors. “There are no direct plans for the company’ s growth through its flotation in the US stock market and the diversification to other ships types such as LNG / LPG market. However, we are open to examine all these alternatives in the future”. Regarding the safety and quality policy of the company Mr. Siafakas pointed out that “We are not compromising on safety / quality issue despite the weak freight market. This policy has performed excellent results in ships and crew’s inspection from port authorities and charterers.” It must be noted that all company’s vessels are flying the Marshall Islands flag and are classed by Bureau Veritas.
Closing Mr. Siafakas expressed his confidence for the recovery of the shipping market in the next year. In any case Product Shipping & Trading is ready to exploit the market challenges and identify various opportunities for further fleet expansion.
Eletson follows a strategy of partnerships to expandinto sophisticated ships
Taking advantage of the interest of Private Equity Funds to invest in shipping, Eletson has established partnerships with Blackstone of US to expand its fleet in the LPG and ethylene carrier sectors. The two partners have set up the company Eletson Gas which already controls a fleet of seven LPG carriers. The vessels are all built between 2009-2012 except one which is built in 2003 and are ranging between 20.000 cbm and 35.000 cbm. According to market sources Eletson Gas will eventually list on the USStock Exchange. Eletson also ordered five 12.000cbm ethylene carriers at South Korea’s Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) for delivery in 2015-2016 and and five 22.000cbm ethylene carriers at Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering in China for delivery 2015-2017. Finally, it must be noted that Eletson Corp, the tanker arm of t he Eletson Group, has a fleet of 25 modern double hull tankers, all flying the Greek flag.
Restis Group enhances responsibility and sustainability standards
In 2014 Restis Group continued its balanced and careful growth in almost all shipping sectors implementing voluntary high standards of corporate social responsibility. Restis Group is involved in dry bulk, tanker, cruise and offshore operations. Restis is one of the greatest shipping names of Greece following innovative and leading management standards. One of the biggest achievements of 2014 for Enterprises Shipping & Trading of Restis Group was the awar d with the ISO 26000 which was presented by Bureau Veritas in an wonderful event during Posidonia 2014.
Another important achievement of 2014 was the successful completion of a secured bond issue of $61m with maturity in May 2017 for Golden Energy Offshore. The proceeds from the bond have today been drawn to repay all existing Groups debtand an application for the bonds to be listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange will be made.
Golden Energy Offshore is based in Alesund, Norway and has a fleet of seven owned and managed platform supply vessels. Restis Group acquired Golden Energy Offshore in July 2010 from Aries Maritime controlled by Gabriel Petrides. It must be noted that Enterprises Shipping & T rading manages today a fleet of 72 vessels (48 dry bulk ships of all types, 23 tankers mainly handymax, panamax and LR2 and 1 cruise ship). Enterprises is focused on the management of modern tonnage and does not have any exposure to newbuilding or ders. This means that the company is w ell positioned to take advantage of new market opportunities proceeding to further expansion. It must be reminded that Restis Group was tr aditionally operating reefer ships and entered in the dry bulk sector in 1999. At the end of 2004 Restis Group bought 32 bulkers from MISC for the total of $740m. In 2002 the Group established Golden Energy Management S.A. which operates tanker vessels. EST S.A. is certified according to the quality standards of ISO 9001 and environmental standards of ISO 140001. EST S.A. has been certified with a four stand EFQM Recognized for Excellence Certificate since y ear 2006 and with the Silver Bee certificate since 2008 by the European Business Ethics Network and with Gold Bee Certificate since 2009.
Moreover, the company has been found to be in compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment 18001 and has been certified with the relevant Certificate. A further accomplishment was achieved in June 2012 when EST SA received the ISO 50001:2011 certificate for its commitment to continuously improve its energy efficiency.
Scorpio Tankers debarks at Piraeus
Taking advantage of the shipping expertise and experience of Greek human force Scorpio has recently acquired the shipmanagement arm of Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) in Greece aiming at providing management services to the expanding fleet of group. The Athens based affiliated company with Scorpio is called Optimum Ship Services and is led by Captain George Vasilakis, former managing director of OSG (Greece) Shipmanagement. According to Capt. Vasilakis during 2014 Optimum will take delivery of 5 tankers. 3 MRs (50k) from SPP and 2 LR2 ( 115K) from DHSC.
In 2015 Optimum expects to take deliv ery of another 9 tankers (4 LR2 & 5MR). Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE:STNG) has in progress a huge newbuilding program of 55 tankers. The majority of these vessels has already been delivered during 2014 and 16 are expected to be delivered in 2015. It is remarkable to say that the bulker arm of the group, Scorpio Bulkers Inc. (NYSE:SALT) has 78 vessels under construction in China, Japan, S. Korea & Romania. Optimum will take delivery and under management 18 bulkers that are under construction in China and Japan. The vessels are to be delivered in 2015 & 2016 and r ange between 60.000dwt – 82.000dwt. It must be noted that Scorpio T ankers Inc. is a NYSE listed company and currently owns 51 tankers (six LR2 tankers, two LR1 tankers, 10 Handymax tankers, 32 MR tankers, and one post-Panamax tanker) with an av erage age of 1.4 y ears, time charters-in 24 product tankers (eight LR2, fiv e LR1, four MR and seven Handymax tankers), and has contr acted for 26 newbuilding product tankers (13 MR, eight LR2, and fiv e Handymax ice class-1A product tankers), 10 are expected to be delivered to the Company through the remainder of 2014 and 16 in 2015. The Company also owns approximately 16.3\% of Dorian LPG Ltd.
Evangelos Pistiolis: Strong comeback to the shipping businesswith innovative and sophisticated projects
Evangelos Pistiolis is one of the leading personalities of Greek shipping who achieved in 2004 at a very young age to become the most popular name of the global shipping. Now, 10 years later, Evangelos Pistiolis CEO of Nasdaq listed Top Ships Inc. and Monaco based Central Shipping has surprised the shipping community with his decision to enter the jack-up offshore market with a confirmed order of US$480m for two Jack-up Rigs plus four optional orders of US$960m at a specialized Chinese shipyard. For this reason Evangelos Pistiolis is without doubt one of the leading personalities of 2014 as he remains very active and alerted taking advantage of the market opportunities.
In an interview to ELNAVI at the beginning of 2014 Mr . Pistiolis told that Central Shipping Monaco SAM was established three years ago and is an independent private entity involved in the Commercial Management for Offshore Drilling and ECO MR Product & Chemical Tankers. Now he has established also Central Offshore Drilling Inc. a company based in Houston, USA with technical management team that consists of executives with extensive experience in the construction supervision, management and operation of offshore drilling platforms worldwide.
Central Mare Inc, the Athens based oil tankers technical management hascompany, has assembled a team of senior executives and key employees who have been working together for over ten years, with extensive experience and expertise in the Technical and Commercial Management of large, diversified tanker fleets. All companies together with their subsidiaries are providing quality services of the highest standards to their clients. Central Shipping has booked 2 firm and 4 optional Friede & Goldman JU-2000E Jackup Rigs at Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore Limited, Yantai, China.
The firm units are due for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2015. These rigs represent the latest generation of high efficiency jack-ups suitable for operations worldwide, in harsh environment, in water depths up to 400 ft and drilling depths up to 35,000 ft. We strongly believe in the offshore market, especially the jack-ups. Jack up rigs is one of the few sectors with a modest order-book and a substantially overage fleet. A very large part of the jack-up drilling rig fleet is over 30 years old. Mr. Pistiolis believes that this new venture going into the jack-up drilling rig sector will be very challenging. Mr. Pistiolis affirmed his intention to keep the jack-up rigs and not to resale the fleet. “Our aim is to obtain experience in the same way that we did in other conventional shipping sectors that we have been involved (dry bulk, crude oil & product tankers) and to establish a reputation for reliability in this demanding sector. It is a long term investment and we will remain in this business”.
Regarding Top Ships Inc, which completes a 10 years successful course in shipping, (in 2004 was listed in Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the name Top Tankers Inc.) the company has now acquired six (6) ECO MR Tankers for Oil & Chemicals – Ship Type IMO 2 that Central Shipping Monaco, the family privately owned shipping company, has ordered at Hyundai Vinashin Shipyard in Vietnam. The first, out of the six v essels M/T STENAWECO ENERGY a 50,000 dwt has already been delivered since end May 2014, and is currently chartered to StenaWeco A/S for 4 + 1 + 1 years at $16,500 per day for the first four years, $17,400 per day for the first optional year and $18,100 per day for the second optional year. Then its Hull No. S407, a 50,000 dwt sister vessel scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2015. The vessel upon its delivery will enter into a time charter agreement with Stena Weco A/S for 3 years at a rate of $16,200 per day. The charterer has the option to extend the time charter agreement for an additional year at a rate of $17,200 per day and an additional year after that at a rate of $18,000 per day. The time charter agreement is to commence upon the vessel’s delivery. Hull No. S418, a 39,000 dwt newbuilding product/chemical tanker scheduled for delivery in the third quarter of 2015. Upon its delivery Hull No. S418 will enter into a time charter agreement with BP Shipping Limited for 3 years at a rate of $15,200 per day. The charterer has the option to extend the charter for an additional year at a rate of $16,000 per day and another year after that at a rate of $16,750 per day.
Hull S419, a 39,000 dwt newbuilding product/chemical tanker scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2016. Upon its delivery Hull No. S419 will enter into a time charter agreement with BP Shipping Limited for 3 years at a rate of $15,200 per day. The charterer has the option to extend the time charter agreement for an additional year at a rate of $16,000 per day and another year after that at a rate of $16,750 per day. Hull S414, a 50,000 dwt newbuilding product/chemical tanker scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2016. The vessel upon its delivery will enter into a time charter agreement with Stena Weco A/S for 3 years at a rate of $16,200 per day. The charterer has the option to extend the time charter agreement for an additional year at a rate of $17,200 per day and an additional year after that at a rate of $18,000 per day. The time charter agreement is to commence upon the vessel’s delivery. Hull S417, a 50,000 dwt newbuilding product/chemical tanker scheduled for delivery in the third quarter of 2016. The vessel will enter upon delivery into a time charter agreement with Dampskibsselskabet NORDEN A/S for 5 years at a rate of $16,800 per day. The charterer has the option to extend the time charter agreement for an additional year at a rate of $17,600 per day and another year after that for a rate of $18,400 per day. The time charter agreement is to commence upon the vessel’s delivery.
Concluding Mr. Pistiolis affirmed that Top Ships Inc. also investigates further investment opportunities within the shipping markets.
Ionic is the new name of dry bulk sector operating young modern ships Focusing on the efficient & quality management, Ionic, one of the latest names of Greek shipping has developed a modern fleet of eight bulk carriers based on the experienced and skillful of the company’s senior management.
Ionic Shipping (Mgt) Inc was founded during the beginning of 2013 with a vision of establishing a ship management company with a difference. The company’s mission statement is to always remain committed to service excellence and to provide value added maritime transportation solutions to all of its charterers and car riers. Today Ionic Shipping has grown to manage a fleet of eight v essels including the latest addition to the fleet, a second-hand kamsarmax bulk carrier namely Ionic Katana which will complement her sister vessel, the newbuilding Kamsarmax bulk carrier Ionic Kleos which was delivered earlier this year. The Ionic Kleos was built at the Tsuneishi’s Tadotsu shipyard in Japan and adds to the company’ s existing fleet of three sister Handysize v essels (34,000 dwt) from the Korean Dae Sun shipyard and a further three sister Supramax vessels (56,000 dwt) that were built by Mitsui in Japan. All of the vessels incorporated in the Ionic fleet are of the highest quality and the arrival of the Ionic Kleos represents an important milestone for the company as managing director Spyros Vlassopoulos elabor ates: “By taking delivery of the Ionic Katana and Ionic Kleos w e are entering the Kamsarmax segment of the dry bulk market which underlines the organic growth for our company. Tsuneishi’s Tadotsu shipyard is well recognised for this series of 82,000 dwt Kamsarmax vessels and more importantly are well acknowledged by our end users. The Ionic team of professionals is based in Glyfada, Athens from where it provides a comprehensive package of services encompassing technical management, operations and supply management, commercial management, crewing, insurance, financial management and new build projects. The three directors of the company hav e a total of 80 years’ experience in the shipping industry alone and they have worked to build a full and professional service team of both sho rebased and sea-faring employees. “As many of us come from a tanker The managing director of Ionic Shipping, Mr. Spyros Vlassopoulos background we are using tanker management practice in managing our fleet of bulk carriers,” Mr. Vlassopoulos says. “This is something that we believe is recognised and seen by our end users in or der to hopefully differentiate ourselves from others. “The quality of the way the ships are run in addition to the tonnage itself is something that we are very proud of. Moreover, there are several extras that we have on the ships that are useful to our clients, such as CO2 in the cargo tanks, A60 steel bulkheads, fuel efficiency devices and super low friction paints. W e want to define ourselves as a quality ship manager for the many y ears to come,” he continues. “We try to ensure that the ships that w e run are of the relevant specification and whenever we get the opportunity to offer our opinions regarding new builds we recommend to Owners the equipment that we would think it beneficial to include. This is to make the vessels preferable for their end users as w e know what our head charters require.”
The Ionic fleet of bulk carriers are all currently deployed on fixedterm charters. The company’s client list currently includes wellknown charterers such as Messrs. Louis Dreyfus Commodities, Cargill, Bunge and Vitol and to ensure that it is able to fully meet the requirements of its customers, Ionic focuses as closely on its crew and officer pool as it does on its fleet of bulk car riers. “We are keen to ensure that we have a full complement of well qualified officers and crew. Fortunately, we are closely linked with a manning agency in the Philippines that we work with and have our own pool of seafarers and officers. We make sure that there is a set agenda, training and rotation of crew and more importantly, continuity throughou t the fleet and crew. We also run a scholarship and cadet programme to ensure that the continuity is there for years to come.” Ionic held its first Officers and Crew conference in Manila during March 2014 with over 30 seamen from its pool in attendance to discuss the various issues surrounding the business. The conference was a success and the second is planned during the 1st quarter of 2015. As the company prepares to move into the future it will focus on maintaining the smooth and organic growth it has enjoy ed since it was established and will remain focused on delivering first-class services to its clients. At the end of 2013, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) advised Ionic that two of its vessels had been awarded approval within the Qualship21 programme, which identifies highquality vessels and rewards them for commitment to safety and quality. The USCG established the programme in 2001 to provide incentives and facilitate quality shipping. “As a company we are very conservative and we want to ensure that our name continues to be recognised for quality ship management. By working with our current head charterers, I believe we are on a good path ,” Mr. Vlassopoulos concludes.
source:elnavi
