Shipbroker Lightship Chartering hopes to increase its activities in the tanker sector despite the closure of its Genoa office after seven staff quit.
Chief executive Sune Fladberg told TradeWinds that plans to enlarge the company’s network will boost its global headcount this year.
“I can confirm we have parted ways with some colleagues and are closing down in Genoa. While it’s never nice to say goodbye to colleagues, we wish them the best of luck in the future. That being said, head for head we now have the strongest team in the history of Lightship,” he said.
As TradeWinds has reported, the staff who have left to join rival Simpson Spence Young in Genoa are panamax brokers Luca Domenico Capitanio, Luca Sambataro and Paolo Bovenga, plus handysize and supramax brokers Stefano Di Paola, Giuseppe Oliviero, Francesco Spotorno and Giulia Terracciano.
Lightship Chartering Genoa, which is 100% owned by Geneva-based Lightship Holding, began operations in 2018.
The Genoa office brought in revenue of €1.8m ($1.84m )during 2021, which was €300,000 more than the previous year, according to its financial report. This gave net profit of €180,957 last year, three times more than in the previous 12 months.
Lightship has already removed mention of the office and staff from its website.
American dream
Lightship Chartering aims for its top and bottom lines to grow by 35% to 45% this year. It also plans to employ more than 200 people worldwide and add four new segments to its business by the end of 2026.
“In dry, we have recently hired a team of experienced brokers in the US to open an office in Miami and we already have one more broker coming in shortly,” Fladberg told TradeWinds.
“We expect the Miami office to grow further over the next year. We will mark the opening by hosting a reception in September in connection with the ASBA [Association of Ship Brokers & Agents] event.”
The Lightship website shows four employees are already in situ in Florida.
Lightship also opened a Singapore office this year, headed up by ex-Ifchor broker Thorbjorn Zorn.
Fladberg said the hub is “off to a strong start”.
“This year we have had two [staff] additions so far and a few more will arrive during the year,” he added.
Five brokers currently focus on panamaxes in Singapore, plus two more on handysize and supramax sectors.
Wet business
Aside from its dry cargo activities, Lightship is again on a mission to diversify.
Lightship Chartering in Denmark booked net profit of DKK 10.4m ($1.4m) last year, up from DKK 1.6m in 2020, according to its latest financial report.
TradeWinds understands this was the company’s best financial year ever.
Fladberg said it is “currently evaluating a range of interesting projects within wet”.
This would mean rebooting its exposure to tankers.
Lightship Tankers was set up in Geneva six years ago with four senior clean products brokers, but the team left in 2020 to join competitor Braemar.
Meanwhile, executive chairman Morten Have is understood to have returned in April from a leave of absence. Fladberg told TradeWinds last year that Have had taken time off for health reasons.
