Norwegian shipbroking giant Fearnleys has hired Fotis Giannakoulis to join its investment banking team in New York, focusing on the shipping and energy sectors.
He will start in his new job as director of the division on 1 December and will also help Fearnleys Securities to expand its renewables business globally.
Giannakoulis is best known in shipping for being Morgan Stanley's lead maritime equities analyst between 2010 and 2019, covering shipping, offshore, LNG and energy infrastructure.
Marius Hermansen, chief executive of the Fearnleys Group, said the new hire was strategically important.
"With Fotis' experience and background, he will significantly strengthen our deal sourcing capacity towards shipping and energy issuers worldwide," he said.
Morgan Stanley dropped its shipping coverage after parting company with Giannakoulis in May 2019, discontinuing coverage of 29 shipowners that had been under his research.
Giannakoulis has spent the past year as a non-executive director of Bluewater Acquisition Corp, a Toronto-listed capital pool company that has been on the hunt to identify and invest in maritime assets and businesses.
The Calgary-based company has not signed any maritime-related deals but revealed on Tuesday that it is acquiring a firm that has developed a solution to help plants kill pathogenic fungi.
With his new appointment, Giannakoulis appears to have accepted his fate.
"When I first came into the industry, one of the first guys I met told me, 'once you’re in shipping, you’re always in shipping'. I took that as a threat. I wanted to do something else — consulting or investment banking," Giannakoulis told TradeWinds in a 2014 interview.
"Today, I feel blessed to be in this industry. I’ve been very lucky to serve the most exciting industry in the world, with all its ups and downs and so many colourful personalities."
