Ben MacLehose attended Rugby School in Warwickshire before graduating at the University of Strathclyde in business law and politics, and then qualifying as an accountant.
A cricket lover and member of the prestigious Marylebone Cricket Club, he spent several years working in insolvency and restructuring, first with advisory Kroll and then successor Zolfo Cooper.
No expectation
“I had no expectation of joining Denholm,” MacLehose says.
At the time, his maritime experience was limited to working as a ship agent during the summer holiday in Southampton for Niall Denholm, son of the late Bob Denholm and brother of Keith Denholm, chief executive outside the group with Caledonia Maritime Services but a non-executive director of the J&J Denholm board.
It was at the agency division that MacLehose gained experience of “problem solving”, a skill required in his years at Zolfo Cooper, which tapped into J&J Denholm’s maritime, operational and technical management abilities in working jointly for shipping banks.
J&J Denholm was never “off my radar”, says MacLehose, who continued to assiduously read the annual accounts and talk regularly to family members about the business.
And when he met John Denholm for breakfast in January 2012 at Lutyens restaurant in London’s Fleet Street, the chairman served up the opportunity to become group commercial manager.
“That was Wednesday morning. By Friday morning the contract was on my doorstep,” MacLehose says.
No promises
But no promises, just get your head down, work hard, learn the business and see where it gets you, was what the chairman told him.
They worked together on the Naikai Zosen Corp bulker newbuilding project but initially looked at product tankers.
Kamsarmax newbuildings were considered but it was a market J&J Denholm was already invested in through its 11.49% stake in another UK family owned company, Hadley Shipping. The outfit owns the 81,000-dwt bulker Coratao (built 2016), ordered a year earlier at Namura Shipbuilding.
Hadley also took delivery this year of the 82,000-dwt kamsarmax Cotinga from Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, lifting to four its fleet of kamsarmaxes and panamaxes.
So, it was decided instead to go for the smaller 37,800-dwt handy size bulkers Mountpark (built 2016) and Glenpark (built 2017).
They were shallow draught, expensive but of high quality, and log-fitted to give the company a niche in the market.
“The principle is, if we invest in better assets we will be the first cabs off the rank,” says MacLehose. Anglo-Eastern handles technical management.
Charter decision
Both ships have been in the Sea Stallion Pool — managed by Germany’s Aug Bolten — although the Glenpark comes up for fixing again over the next few months. A decision has to be made whether to go for an index-linked or fixed-rate charter this time and with whom.
The Mountpark was delivered into a very poor market but since mid-2018 earnings have been much better, MacLehose says.
“Have they done as well as we hoped? No,” he adds.
“Does that surprise me? No it doesn’t because of the market in the last couple of years. The Trump-China story weighs heavily on dry and also the push down of Vale. But we are hopeful for the summer and more optimistic for Q3 and Q4.”
