Dublin-domiciled Pilgrim Global ICAV only came to shipping five years ago, but now almost half of its money is in the industry — in crude carriers, small containerships and dry bulk.
The fund started by Fidelity Investments veteran Darren Maupin in 2011 with $10m to invest has grown that to more than $250m under management, in addition to separate investments by Maupin's Pelerin Global.
Maupin said the cash behind his portfolio has been built up by word of mouth without marketing, largely from "the more entrepreneurial family offices".
From 1998 to 2007 at Fidelity, Maupin already had some involvement in tanker owner recapitalisations. But Pilgrim Global only started its shipping investment campaign five years ago in October 2016 with an investment in the recapitalisation of Genco Shipping & Trading. Since then, it proceeded briskly across all the main asset classes.
Shipping portfolio
Pilgrim Global retains one of the larger shareholdings there, about 6.4%. Its share in Arctic specialist Pangaea Logistics remains under the 5% reporting threshold but as of 13 August it disclosed a share of over 6% in Eagle Bulk Shipping.
In 2017, Maupin was the driving force behind setting up MPC Container Ships — lately his highest-profile investment — where he and fellow investor Tony Mallin just took NOK 550m ($62m) off the table.
That same year, Maupin and Mallin set up their own dry bulk owner, Anglo International Shipping, because there were no suitable publicly listed vehicles for their chosen investment in panamax and larger tonnage.
In 2018, Maupin ventured into direct control of steel again, in a very different market.
Little-known Union Crude Carriers funded the purchase of five aframax crude tankers from BP to trade with the fleet of Laurent Cadji's London-based Union Maritime.
The deal flew under the radar. Reports at the time spoke of an eight-ship en-bloc purchase by Union Maritime, but in fact five of the aframaxes came under the separate UCC vehicle with Cadji’s Union Maritime and Maupin’s Pilgrim Global the two largest investors. The five Samsung Heavy Industries-built sisterships went for a reported $64.5m.
As with MPC Container Ships, Maupin has been content to sit with a minority stake in UCC — even being a driver behind the project. The venture is a pure ownership entity whose five ships are commercially operated by Union Maritime, Maupin said.
