Greek shipowner Panagis Zissimatos looks like he is attempting to reactivate Adriatic Tankers three years after he reappeared on the shipping scene with a new company under his own name.
Adriatic was his flagship company, but it collapsed in the 1990s in a blizzard of legal disputes, recriminations and vessel arrests.
Greek shipping ministry documents released on the internet on 26 January 2021 show Adriatic Tankers Shipping Co SA — an identical namesake to the old Zissimatos management company — has obtained an operating licence.
Adriatic Tankers’ listed address is an office building in the seaside Athens suburb of Voula.
The site also serves as the seat of Monte Nero Maritime and Monte Nero Management — another pair of companies set up in 2018 that several Greek shipping sources have linked to Zissimatos.
The shipowner, who is now in his early 70s, reappeared on the shipping scene in 2017 as the registered legal representative of Swiss Carriers — another Athens-based company that is known to have shared employees with Monte Nero.
An official at Adriatic Tankers did not respond to an emailed request to elaborate on the company’s background and Zissimatos’ role in it. The exact shareholder structure of Swiss Carriers, Monte Nero and Adriatic Tankers, as well as any executive capacity of Zissimatos in them, remains unclear.
Chequered history
The two Monte Nero outfits have been the most active in that assortment of companies, having emerged as managers of several, usually vintage, tankers and bulkers that changed hands in the secondhand market.
Shipping databases such as Equasis, IHS Markit and the Greek Shipping Directory show two VLCCs and an aframax to be in the Monte Nero fleet. They are the 309,000-dwt Assos (ex-Olympic Liberty, built 2003), 281,100-dwt Kyoto (ex-Tenyo, built 2000) and the 112,100-dwt Evreti (ex-Seaways Portland, built 2002).
Monte Nero Maritime used to have an active website but it was taken down last month for unknown reasons.
Zissimatos has been one of the most controversial shipping names back in the 1990s.
He started out with two ships in 1978, when he took over his father’s interests. By 1993, his Adriatic Tankers had built up a fleet of 84 ships, more than half of them small chemical or products tankers.
However, two years later, the company collapsed after a wave of arrests on behalf of US bondholders and disputes with crews over unpaid salaries that prevented vessels from trading.
In 1996, the Greek shipowner said he was trying to rebuild his life as a consultant to owners of the types of vessels he knew about.
