A milestone of sorts in Star Bulk Shipping’s $836m all-stock takeover of Eagle Bulk Shipping will come at the end of this month, with the departure of the highest-ranking Eagle executive held over in the transition process.
Streetwise has learned that former Eagle chief financial officer Costa Tsoutsoplides is bound for a similar post at private Connecticut outfit MT Maritime Management, an owner of tankers and bulkers.
Transition role
Tsoutsoplides declined to comment when approached by TradeWinds’ Streetwise newsletter this week. However, he has made his plans known to select business contacts in the market over the past few weeks.
The finance man’s stay with Star Bulk was always going to be temporary, as he inked a six-month contract as senior adviser upon closing of the takeover in April.
He spent time this summer criss-crossing the Atlantic between Eagle’s former headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, and Star’s offices in Athens, assisting in the integration of Eagle’s fleet and operations.
At the same time, Tsoutsoplides was known to be investigating job opportunities in both markets, ultimately deciding to accept an opportunity 15 miles (24 km) from his family’s Connecticut home.
MTM’s owned fleet consists of 24 chemical carriers, two product tankers and 15 bulkers under its Strategic Bulk Carriers brand, according to the company’s website.
The outfit is headquartered in the Southport section of Fairfield, Connecticut, with other offices including Singapore, the Netherlands, India and Greece.
MTM is led by a rare husband-and-wife management team of executive chairman Douglas McShane and chief executive Christina Tan, who is understood to play the biggest role in the company’s financial affairs.
Among the company’s notable alumni is Anthony Gurnee, who once served as its chief operating officer before departing for a career path that would see him retire this year as CEO of Ireland’s Ardmore Shipping.
The addition of a CFO in Tsoutsoplides leads some to wonder whether the company may be pursuing growth ambitions.
An Eagle stalwart
In recent years, Tsoutsoplides has been known as the right hand to Eagle chief executive Gary Vogel, who left the company at the closing of the Star acquisition, with a pay package of $9m in vested restricted stock and severance pay.
Vogel, an avid sailor, was said to be looking forward to some downtime with his family over the summer, but market sources said he will likely be an attractive candidate to head up another bulker operation, given his track record and reputation as a trusted steward of capital.
Tsoutsoplides was awarded a pay package of about $3.4m in a combination that created the largest US-listed dry bulk owner with a combined fleet of 169 vessels. It is led by Star CEO Petros Pappas.
At the time of the deal with Star, Tsoutsoplides was one of Eagle’s longest-serving employees.
He is a holdover from the original Eagle, which was taken public by a management team led by Sophocles Zoullas in 2005.
Tsoutsoplides joined the company in 2010. He worked his way through the ranks, rising to chief strategy officer in November 2021 and then succeeding Frank De Costanzo as CFO in December 2022.
Tsoutsoplides’ time under the old management included a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisation in 2014. Zoullas was retained as CEO upon emergence but soon had a falling out with Eagle’s board and parted ways.
Eagle chairman Paul Leand tapped Vogel to come on as CEO in 2015 along with key chartering man Bo Westergaard. But in another significant move, he asked Tsoutsoplides to stay on with the revamped operation.
“The company had good bones,” Tsoutsoplides told a Connecticut Maritime Association audience in 2022.
“We had the third-largest supramax fleet in the world. What we needed was leadership, vision, capital to grow and talent. We needed someone like Gary and Bo to come in and optimise things.”
Vogel returned the compliment in promoting Tsoutsoplides to CFO later that year.
“He has a proven history of delivering results that have generated considerable value for our organisation over the years,” Vogel said then.
Tsoutsoplides previously spent eight years at banking giant Citigroup, before working a year as vice president of finance at bunker supplier Aegean Marine Petroleum Network and five years at Delphin Shipping.
He has a master’s in business administration from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Boston University. He is a chartered financial analyst.
Tsoutsoplides’ departure will be the latest in a series of Eagle staffers to exit the new Star, amid merger synergies that have claimed about 10% of the holdover staff.
They include Eagle’s former technical director, controller-treasurer, head of financial planning and bunker manager.
