Veritas Shipmanagement, a low-profile outfit based in the seaside Athens suburb of Vouliagmeni, has been increasingly busy on the secondhand scene in recent months.
Led by its general manager Theodoros Nikolakis, the company was founded in 2013. It has been operating below the radar since as a third-party technical manager and a supervisor of newbuildings.
Accelerating activity in the sale-and-purchase market, however, has spurred Veritas clients to use the company in the acquisition of two containerships and at least two bulkers.
Over the summer, Veritas emerged as new manager of a feeder boxship pair that South Korea’s Nam Sung Shipping sold in April for about $16m in total — the 962-teu Pegasus Zetta (renamed Holy Trinity, built 2005) and the 1,024-teu Star Apex (renamed Holy Spirit, built 2006).
Veritas clients have already flipped both vessels in a lucrative asset play, according to shipbroking sources in Athens. One of them, the Star Apex, is now listed in the fleet of Taiwan’s TS Lines as TS Moji.
Veritas has been even busier in bulkers. In March, it emerged as new manager of the 78,400-dwt bulker Spring Warbler (renamed Cornelia M, built 2012) — a ship sold by Japanese interests in February at an undisclosed price.
At about the same time, clients of Veritas also pounced on the 79,200-dwt Tharkey (renamed Legend I, built 2010). United Arab Emirates-based interests reportedly sold that ship in an en-bloc deal with sisterships Veenus and Sher-E Punjab (both built 2011) for $30.3m in total.
The Veenus and Sher-E Punjab have not entered the Veritas fleet yet.
