New Jersey-based vessel manager Mjolner Shipping Solutions is expanding its cooperation with MID-SHIP Capital with a new investment fund focusing on the clean-products market.
It is the second fund launched by the parties at a time when there is significant optimism over a revived products market heading into the IMO 2020 emissions deadline.
As TradeWinds has reported, Mjolner and MID-SHIP, a merchant bank, first teamed up in 2017 with an initial fund focusing on the crude sector.
Such funds allow investors to play the fortunes of the relevant market without needing to acquire vessels.
"We believe that the prevailing market environment will offer investors premium rates of return and we look forward to efficiently and effectively deploying capital on their behalf," said RJ Lyons, Mjolner chief executive.
MID-SHIP CEO Dean Fezza said his company couldn't be happier with its Mjolner venture and views the new company, Product Solutions, "as a natural extension of the platform."
Fezza and then-Mjolner CEO Kevin Wise told TradeWinds in September 2017 that their first fund, Mjolner Solutions, would trade crude tankers from VLCCs down to panamaxes over a fixed 3.5-year term.
“You’ve seen a lot of private equity and hedge funds who wanted exposure to assets and bought ships,” Wise said then. “Being asset light, we take out the residual risk of owning the asset, offer our expertise within the trading platform and provide a specified exit from the investment.”
Added Fezza regarding Mjolner Solutions: “We targeted high net-worth individuals and family office investors. They all have in some way generated their money through the energy industry more broadly."
