Top staff have exited Oldendorff Carriers to set up new bulker-focused businesses in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Singapore that will be backed by Costamare.
The Danish, German and Singaporean entities — all named Costamare Bulkers Services — appear to have backing from the private side of the Konstantinos Konstantakopoulos-controlled Costamare group. The public entity, Costamare Inc, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
A bulker market source said the new company is set to be announced publicly in January 2023 with staff drawn largely from Oldendorff, at least some of whom left their positions early this year to serve out a non-competition agreement. Estimates of the number of defections from Oldendorff to Costamare range from 10 to 20.
One source with knowledge of the matter suggested that the former Oldendorff chartering staff will run it as an asset-light operator, including bulkers owned by Costamare. Another source said the platform will focus on the capesize and panamax segments in the same template as freight operator SwissMarine.
Others expect a spin-off aimed at taking recently diversified Costamare back to its pure-play roots as a container ship owner, aiming at a higher stock valuation.
Henning Oldendorff, chairman of the Lubeck-headquartered firm, declined to comment on staff defections. Gregory Zikos, chief financial officer at Costamare, told TradeWinds the company would not speculate on market rumours.
The new business in Copenhagen will be headed by Jens Jacobsen, previously an Oldendorff executive director and board member who was said to be responsible for much of Oldendorff’s success in sale-and-purchase deals.
A dry bulk market source said Jacobsen has been drawn from the Oldendorff staff roster to run Costamare’s fleet of bulkers. The Copenhagen entity was formally established in July, according to registry documents.
It is not the first time Jacobsen has set up a large Danish shipping business. The 15-year veteran of Oldendorff Carriers left the German bulker giant’s Singapore office in 2017 to set up its Copenhagen base.
Jacobsen’s LinkedIn profile lists his occupation as “gardening leave” since January.
Meanwhile, Costamare’s new base in Hamburg will be headed up by former Oldendorff staffers Kishore Anchan and Tom Hagen.
Anchan previously headed Oldendorff’s capesize chartering team as executive director and Hagen was head of the Hamburg panamax desk.
Documents filed with the German business registry show that Costamare Bulkers Services was established in Hamburg in mid-August by private entity Costamare Maritime Training Services. Documents state the business will charter vessels, source cargoes and provide agency services.
Anchan will serve as managing director and Hagen as director out of Costamare’s existing office in Hamburg.
Hagen left Oldendorff in January, after spending 22 years with the company, but is flying a coy flag on social media.
“I have a new job and am working as Soon to be announced,” Hagen wrote in an German-language LinkedIn post in September.
One source who claimed to have knowledge of the matter characterised Hagen as “[having] Oldendorff branded on both cheeks”.
Hamburg-based panamax chartering director Wu Lan also left Oldendorff in June and has posted her LinkedIn employment status as “getting ready”.
Greece’s Costamare appears to have made inroads in establishing separate corporate entities for its bulker business over the past 18 months.
Costamare Bulkers (Holdings) Inc was registered in the Marshall Islands in early August, just over a year after Costamare Bulkers Inc was established in the jurisdiction, according to registry records. Costamare Bulkers Inc is 100% owned by New York-listed Costamare Inc, according to securities filings
Over in Singapore, Costamare Bulkers Services was established on 19 September. Filings show the entity is 100% owned by Konstantakopoulos and will offer “shipbrokering services”.
Former Oldendorff freight analyst Esther Sim is named as a director of the Singapore firm. Her LinkedIn profile shows she has left the German operator and is currently on gardening leave.
What next?
In a well-timed and dramatic diversification from May to July of last year, Costamare assembled a dry bulk fleet from scratch with the acquisition of 37 ships. Before then, the firm had been known as a container ship owner.
Data provider VesselsValue currently values Costamare’s 45 bulkers at a combined $764m, out of a total fleet worth over $5bn.
Costamare remains one of few major stock-listed shipowners who have bucked the trend towards “pure-play” shipowning, a strategy that is proven to attract greater engagement and higher valuations from non-specialist investors.
“They [Costamare] have realised how much not being a pure play in the stock market costs the overall valuation of the company, irrespective of their excellent timing [in dry bulk acquisitions],” said one source briefed on the company’s intentions.
Big-name Greeks have lately shown willingness to place their bulk carriers under management in Germany.
Last year, Lemos company Enesel hired Hamburg-based Valhal Shipping to be its exclusive dry bulk agent. Valhal was founded by Jacob Juncher, who was head of sale and purchase at OldendorffC Carriers between 2010 and 2020. S&P manager Catherine Lessow also joined Valhal from Oldendorff, where she had worked since 2004.
M/Maritime, which is backed by Greek industrial tycoon Evangelos Mytilineos, and the Xylas families have also placed their handysize bulkers in the Hamburg-based TMA pool.
This story has been amended since its original publication to add information about the Singapore business plus further clarification.
