Pools operator Heidmar not only gained a joint venture partner with its recent alliance with Evangelos Marinakis' Capital Ship Management, but it also more than doubled the size of its managed fleet.
But while that created some much-needed scale, does it also spawn some downside in being so heavily weighted toward one dominant owner?
And is that dynamic heightened in that the owner has a reputation for being as exacting a partner as is Marinakis?
Sources in the pooling sector raised exactly those questions in recent remarks to TradeWinds, saying it will be interesting to see how readily Heidmar is able to attract other third-party tonnage going forward.
Khanna responds
But the notion was flatly dismissed by Heidmar chief executive Pankaj Khanna, who notes that the 32 tankers being contributed by Capital are not going into a single pool but into several within the six under the company's banner.
"It's 10 VLCCs, eight aframaxes, five MRs an so on," Khanna said.
"If that's the case, then no one should ever go to the Penfield suezmax pool which is almost all International Seaways or Navig8's suezmax pool which is all Ridgebury Tankers," he said, referring to competitors Penfield Marine and the Navig8 Group.
But if there is no issue with a large-scale owner, might there be one particular to Marinakis and Capital?
Khanna spoke glowingly of his new allies in the JV announcement, calling them "quality tanker owners" with a "talented commercial team" that is also folding into the venture.
Still, Marinakis is a strong and aggressive personality who has been shown before to be a demanding partner — just ask former staff of the old Diamond S Shipping, which merged with the Greek's Capital Product Partners in 2019.
A public lambasting
After months of reported tensions between the two teams in the combined company over commercial strategy and results, Marinakis finally let loose publicly in October 2020.
Speaking at a Capital Link conference in Greece, he called the Diamond merger one of the worst business decisions he had ever made.
"Ultimately, we found out that we did not share the same vision and motivation with the management and the company's performance was unsatisfactory," Marinakis said then.
Diamond S ultimately became a takeover target of New York-listed International Seaways and negotiated an agreement under which it paid Capital Maritime & Trading $34m to prematurely terminate management contracts for its 25 tankers.
The Diamond S chapter of course had its own circumstances particular to a shipowner, not a pooling arrangement.
"Still, Marinakis is a tough customer and it will be interesting to see what the fallout is from his presence in the pool," said one Heidmar competitor.
Capital executive Jerry Kalogiratos told TradeWinds this week that the company has high hopes for the JV.
"Capital's strong presence will make sure that the pools will have an 'owners' mindset' when it comes to maximising earnings for participants and the Heidmar platform will ensure transparency for all involved," he said.
