For the third time in 26 years, the name Sokana has returned to the Connecticut maritime scene. And so has its founder, Lars Ebbesen.
The third iteration of Sokana sees the veteran chartering man in a new alliance with Greek shipowner and operator Interunity Group, with two dozen tankers already under commercial management.
Ebbesen and Interunity director George Mangos unveiled the new Sokana in a conference call with TradeWinds.
The partners are managing mostly MR and handysize product tankers, but the fleet ranges from LR1s to J19 stainless-steel chemical ships.
The alliance has been quietly building since last August and has reached an aggregate 880,000 dwt.
Ebbesen clearly enjoyed breaking out the Sokana name again after two previous runs in Connecticut over 26 years.
Sokana moved from its 1988 origins in Houston, Texas, where Ebbesen founded it with Norwegian shipowner Arne Blystad, to Westport in Connecticut in 1994.
“Each iteration has been a product of its time and each partnership that formed to create it unique," Ebbesen said. "But each time it’s been an unbelievable journey, and each one accretive in experience.”
The gregarious Dane has been a familiar presence on the Fairfield County maritime scene since his early days as the in-house commercial manager for Blystad.
The Sokana name fell out of use after the operation was bought out by Eitzen Chemical in 2006, but was revived by Ebbesen and his team in 2008 as they launched a market comeback.
The second version was bought out by Navig8 Chemicals in 2011 and Ebbesen left the firm in 2015.
In 2016, it was announced that Singaporean owner Norstar Shipping was forming a commercial management joint venture with Ebbesen and long-time Sokana collaborator Olav Ekeberg.
The Westport-based venture was christened Norstar Chartering (USA).
The partnership worked for a couple of years, “but philosophically we were not properly aligned”, Ebbesen said, and Norstar bought him out.
That set the stage for the new partnership with Mangos and Interunity.
The connection actually dates to 2012, when Ebbesen and Mangos were introduced by Patrick Curry, the late Clarksons shipbroker.
“A great chemistry from the first meeting,” Mangos said.
At the time, Interunity had some stainless-steel chemical tankers and relationships with US private equity firms.
Navig8 took in one of the tankers during Ebbesen’s tenure there.
“We kept in touch over the years," Ebbesen said. "After my departure from Norstar, we rekindled the relationship.
“All the elements came together in August 2019, when the concept went from abstract to concrete very fast.”
From that first tanker, the pace accelerated in early 2020 with the entry of six 25,000-dwt chemical tankers from the fleet of Sterling Ocean, a financial player that had employed the vessels on time charters with Shell and Mitsubishi.
Some current clients do not want to be identified, but the partners said seven MR tankers are coming from a Connecticut private equity firm as their existing charters expire.
Interunity has a reputation in Greece for working with banks and financial institutions. Ebbesen and Mangos stopped short of saying Sokana would pursue such tonnage, but confirmed such ownership is part of the portfolio.
“I don’t think we necessarily target them,” Mangos said. “But at Interunity, we’ve been working with big institutions since 2010. Our client base has been focused around it in an organic way. It’s an indication of the trust they’re willing to place in us.”
The joint venture boasts Interunity’s offices in Athens and Bremen, with Ebbesen in Westport and recently hired Steen Eriksen — formerly of Maersk Tankers and Team Tankers — based in Houston.
“We like to be lean and mean,” Ebbesen said. “As the fleet grows, we will staff up accordingly. We want to make sure what we’re building is sustainable.”
Mangos said the venture targets “steady growth”.
“It’s fair to say TCE [time charter equivalent] and fleet growth are not necessarily correlated,” he said.
Lars Ebbesen has seen a lot of markets in his days as a chartering man, but perhaps nothing like the 2020 scenario marked by both coronavirus demand destruction and a temporary world oil glut.
It is that dynamic that he faces with a fleet of product tankers and chemical carriers as he moves forward with the latest version of Sokana Chartering.
'Unique times'
“We obviously are finding ourselves in quite unique times,” Ebbesen said.
“Covid-19 has turned the world upside down. It’s created some unique market situations. Some are of great benefit to owners and some are not. It’s a very difficult market to manoeuvre right now. We’ll just have to take it day by day.”
Sokana tankers have not taken part in floating storage opportunities that spread even to the product sector from March, though some are effectively storing cargoes in demurrage situations stemming from port delays, Ebbesen said.
Charter breakdown
The fleet is currently employed about one-third on charter coverage and two-thirds on the spot market, he said.
“We’re all struggling to figure about the true impact of Covid," he said. "Having said that, there is still activity in the market. There are some signs in what we’re doing with spot that appetite is returning, especially on this side in the US.
“We’re far from having a clear view, but one thing we do know: some parts of the market will close down and other parts will open up. That will create enormous arbitrage plays where products get revalued.”
Interunity Management director George Mangosnotes that Interunity is able to support Sokana’s chartering efforts with a strong existing operations team.
Aristotle's 'emergence'
He also cites what he calls an Aristotelian philosophical concept known as “emergence” that involves a more active way of managing cargoes to improve the bottom line.
“This increases the task at hand multifold, but workload never scares us,” Mangos said.
The concept is entirely commercial management at this stage and Sokana does not currently contemplate pools, Ebbesen added.
“Something like that would have to grow from the needs of the client base and an expression that they wish to go down that avenue,” he said.
