Mats Berglund is leaving Pacific Basin Shipping in a solid position after nine years leading the Hong Kong-listed handysize bulker giant.
The former Stena Group and Overseas Shipholding Group executive will stay engaged in shipping — through board directorships, for example — but sees no more chief executive positions in his future.
The youthful Swede's long-planned move is a genuine retirement, although he does not turn 60 until next year.
Berglund said his move is for personal reasons, and not related to uncertainties about the future of the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong which has seen Beijing enforce harsh measures against democracy campaigners.
"I don't feel I'm leaving the company in a bad spot," Berglund told TradeWinds. "Freight rates have recovered to above pre-pandemic levels.
"Seasonally speaking, we are currently well above the levels for this time of year of the last five years. And stimulus measures as well as virus roll-outs are on the way."
Berglund modestly concentrated on external factors in Pacific Basin's good health. But his boss, chairman David Turnbull, credited Berglund's contributions in getting the company "entirely focused on its core business with a strong team, efficient cost structure and a clear strategy".
"Mats led the company’s exit from all non-core business segments and guided the growth of our core dry bulk handysize and supramax business from 34 owned ships in 2012 to a current fleet of 117 owned ships and an overall fleet including chartered tonnage of over 250 ships," Turnbull said in announcing the transition.
Pacific Basin announced last week that Berglund would leave at the end of July after a one-month overlap period as he helps his successor — Martin Fruergaard — come on board.
Fruergaard, 53, a Danish veteran of Maersk Bulker Carriers, will be leaving the top spot at Chile's Ultragas, the LPG carrier subsidiary of Ultranav.
Behind the move
The announcement came as a surprise to many but Berglund said it has been in the works for a while.
"The board ran a thorough recruitment process and I did not give formal notice until recently," he said.
Berglund said he played a board member's role in selecting and interviewing candidates.
"I obviously did what I could to facilitate it but it was not my job to pick my own successor," he told TradeWinds.
Berglund, a native of Gothenburg who has homes on the west coasts of both Sweden and Florida, mentioned personal considerations including care for ageing parents in Sweden as reasons for his move. He will be spending more time with family in Sweden, pursuing his interests in the outdoors as a hiker, sailor and fisherman.
Within shipping, he remains a board member of product tanker owner Ardmore Shipping.
"I am not leaving to take another full time job," he said.
Nor is his move related to political and legal developments in Hong Kong, on which Berglund made no comment.
"There is no connection whatever," Berglund said. "We absolutely love Hong Kong. It's a fantastic place to live and work. I am very proud of my colleagues here and the city with the beaches, the hiking, the restaurants is a combination hard to beat.
"We are on the doorstep to the world’s largest dry bulk importer and it's also a good place to be stock-listed."
Fruergaard will move to Hong Kong and be based there.
But Berglund added that Hong Kong is one of 12 worldwide offices for Pacific Basin and 80% of the company's chartering business is done elsewhere. Hong Kong is headquarters for ship management, accounting, IT, personnel and other back-office functions.
Strengths
He singled out the Chinese crews and Chinese-speaking ship-management staff as a strength of the Hong Kong office.
"We have not seen any problems attracting and recruiting high-quality people including Martin," Berglund said. "Most of our employees here are local Hong Kong people, and the job market is currently tough in Hong Kong so we get many and highly qualified applicants for any openings that we have."
When Fruergaard takes over, he will join a management team that includes chief financial officer Peter Schulz in Hong Kong, and two commercial bosses — Surinder Brrar, who heads the handysize fleet worldwide and Pacific commercial offices from Hong Kong, and Kristian Helt, who leads the supramax fleet and Atlantic offices from London.
Berglund was the second prominent Hong Kong shipping boss to announce his departure so far this year, following Wallem Group's chief executive Frank Coles.
