Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Maritime has appointed Adam Byrne as its new head of ship finance.
The experienced ING banker will replace Malte Schulte-Trux, who is leaving at the end of November to return to Germany for personal reasons.
The shipowner told TradeWinds that the two are working together during a transitional period.
Prior to joining Zodiac, Bryne spent almost 16 years at Dutch bank ING, and had been managing director there since 2012.
“Adam was Zodiac’s banker at ING Group for the past 14 years and worked closely with the company on several landmark transactions,” Zodiac said.
The senior banker also spent 10 years at HSBC, where his experience in shipping finance began.
“Adam will be instrumental in taking over and progressing the work begun by Zodiac’s outgoing ship-finance head, Malte Schulte-Trux,” the owner told TradeWinds.
Schulte-Trux was hired by Zodiac in late 2018.
He has enjoyed a relationship with the shipowner lasting more than 30 years.
Before his time at Zodiac, the senior banker covered the Zodiac account for over 20 years at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Schiffsbank, before being brought in-house as part of a strategic step to relocate Zodiac’s finance division from New York to London.
Tough markets
“Malte successfully oversaw the transition and has optimised Zodiac’s portfolio against trying market conditions,” Zodiac said.
Now the shipowner is looking forward to working with Bryne, who it describes as an expert in the industry.
Zodiac said Byrne has around 25 years of experience in shipping finance and an established relationship with the company, so is ideally suited to take on the portfolio and to advance “this fundamental role that is so crucial to Zodiac’s future success”.
Bryne told LinkedIn: “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as head of shipping finance at Zodiac Maritime.”
The new recruit describes himself as a “senior banker” with an extensive track record of originating, structuring and lead-arranging complex financing solutions for many of the world’s leading shipping companies.
In his last role at ING, he was responsible for the strategy and management of the bank’s North Americas shipping finance business.
At HSBC before that, the University of Manchester graduate was responsible for the origination and execution of “new high-profile business transactions and cross-selling opportunities from a portfolio of leading shipping names” based primarily in northern Europe.
Cross-Atlantic move
Zodiac’s finance division had been based in New York since the early 1980s, when current chairman Eyal Ofer was living in the US financial hub and overseeing activities.
But with the group’s continued expansion in London, and the industry’s banking environment more international than it was in the 1980s, the finance division returned to the UK capital.
The company has a fleet of around 137 vessels on the water and a further 28 vessels on order worth more than $2bn, according to VesselsValue.
It has a three VLGCs plus a series of 15,000-teu container ships on order at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. It also has a series of 7,000-ceu car carriers on order at China’s Yantai Raffles and Xiamen Shipbuilding.
