Ariella Kuper, founder and managing director of Solution Strategists, the leading maritime auction house in South Africa, is preparing to auction a suezmax tanker and a multipurpose vessel in August.
With the country’s borders sealed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the auctions will be conducted live via online platform Microsoft Teams.
Online ships auctions have been conducted elsewhere since the onset of the pandemic, but these will be Kuper’s first. She hopes the idea will continue to gain traction in the future.
“For years I have been wanting to do online auctions,” Kuper told TradeWinds.
“A virtual online auction provides an independent and impartial platform for bidders to participate regardless of their time zone or geographic location.”
“Being based down in South Africa, this advantage has a multiplier effect.”
In real time
Kuper explained that to participate normally, bidders would fly into the auction location, which is South Africa in this case. Costs from flights, accommodation, plus lost time out of the office would be incurred just to participate in the auction, but with no guarantee of success.
Alternatively, an appointed power of attorney would represent them and liaise in a third-party capacity.
“Now all this can be done at the click of a button, in real time by the decision maker themselves, regardless of their location geographically.”
“With all conditions rigorously adhered to, a virtual auction provides a more engaging experience as the participants can speak, watch and bid as if they were sharing the same venue.”
“Business unusual, we may conclude, but a more streamlined offering is certainly one worth recognising," she said.
Kuper, who holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, spent 10 years as a steel trader for Macsteel International, heading up its South American business for several years.
She became an auctioneer after returning to South Africa in 2007 and later co-founded an online mining and shipping auction company that specialised in the disposal of niche value assets.
Kuper set up Solution Strategists in 2019 as a dedicated maritime auction company to handle judicial auctions and private treaty sales of commercial vessels in Southern Africa.
Recent successful auctions have included bulkers, tankers and a deepsea mining vessel.
