Peter Georgiopoulos is back.

The famed New York shipowner and partner Leo Vrondissis have agreed to acquire Dubai-based United Arab Chemical Carriers (UACC) for an undisclosed price in a deal revealed on Thursday.

The transaction marks Georgiopoulos’ return to the shipping stage after the first hiatus of a 30-year career.

He has been out of shipping since Euronav’s June 2018 takeover of his Gener8 Maritime, where Vrondissis was chief financial officer.

“How does it feel? I don’t know, ask me in a month,” Georgiopoulos quipped in an interview with TradeWinds.

“Look, I’m just excited at the prospect. It’s what I’ve been doing for over 30 years now. I like to work. I’ve worked my whole life. Not having something to do has been a big change. It’s been a challenge. I look forward to being busier.”

Georgiopoulos and Vrondissis have teamed to investigate a number of opportunities over the past two years and finally formed Athens-based United Overseas Group (UOG), the company acquiring UACC through a complex “reverse triangular merger.”

The deal, which is being financed by alternative investment firm EnTrust Global, still requires shareholder and regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of the quarter.

UACC, founded in 2007, has a fleet of 22 vessels, 20 of which are owned. They include nine chemical tankers, two LR1s and nine MRs.

VesselsValue assigns a worth of $345m to the fleet, which averages as 11 years old.

The partners began to investigate a deal early last spring, Vrondissis said.

“We thought it was an attractive fleet and a good entry point in the cycle, given that the market has been going through demand- and value-destruction due to Covid that will come back when the world normalises,” he said.

The transaction “played to our skill sets,” Vrondissis said, in that the sellers were eager to sell the business as a going concern rather than just a fleet – the type of deal Georgiopoulos has orchestrated several times in his career.

Peter Georgiopoulos is teaming with longtime lieutenant and now partner Leo Vrondissis for a play on the chemical and products sectors. Photo: TradeWinds Events

“We were able to get our heads around that. Some people prefer to just buy assets, but we weren’t afraid to get a little bit dirty,” Vrondissis said.

Georgiopoulos agreed.

“Absolutely – the lawyers said this was the most complicated deal they’d ever worked on. It goes beyond any deal I’ve ever worked on. That made it exciting and really intellectually challenging. And the other side was great,” Georgiopoulos said.

He alluded to the group of sovereign wealth funds and high net worth individuals who have owned UACC since it was the first company set up in Dubai’s free trade zone.

UACC was known to be on the sales block at a price of $200m in 2017, when TradeWinds reported that Qatar’s diplomatic row with other Middle East Gulf states were holding up a deal.

At the time, Saudi VLCC owner Bahri and Qatari shipping group Milaha were said to be among the potential buyers.

Georgiopoulos, a native of New York, is a former shipbroker and investment banker who, from a few ships held privately, built an empire of one of the world's most famous shipowners.

Prior to Gener8, he led four public companies, including tanker owner General Maritime, bulker owners owners Genco Shipping & Trading and Baltic Trading, and bunker supplier Aegean Marine Petroleum.

He transformed $80m in start-up capital into $1.4bn in dividends and share buybacks. But both General Maritime and Genco would go through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisations later in his career.

Vrondissis joined General Maritime out of university in 2001, the year that it launched as a public company in New York.

But while both have years of experience with public companies, that’s not what they’re seeing for UACC anytime soon.

“Look, I think there’s no value in being public right now,” Georgiopoulos said. “Most companies are trading at discounts to NAV, plus it comes with a lot of headaches with shareholders and board members.

“So if we can manage it, the intention will be that we remain a private company.”

Both Georgiopoulos and Vrondissis have worked closely with George Fikaris, a former Gener8 vice president who is now a managing director at EnTrust Global.

Georgiopoulos also has a longstanding relationship with Svein Engh, the former CIT shipping chief who is now senior managing director and portfolio manager at the alternative finance firm.