The Schulte Group is behind a new fund planning to invest $120m in smaller bulkers and containerships.

The family-run shipping group is the anchor investor in Cyprus-based maritime fund Hanseatic Capital Management (HCM).

It will invest in secondhand handysize and supramax bulk carriers, and container feeders, aged between four and 15 years old.

The first fund, Hanseatic Fund VCIC, plans to “initially” raise $120m.

"HCM will concentrate on a commercially balanced employment strategy, which will include both shorter and period charters, depending on the vessel segment,” a statement reads.

The fund is managed by chief investment officer Kyriacos Charalambides – formerly of Deloitte - and chief risk officer is Stelios Demetriou, who previously worked with C.P. Palema and KPMG.

They will aim for “a conservative use of leverage.”

“Given the high operating leverage of shipping, the fund’s managers aspire to low breakeven points for vessels,” it said.

Hanseatic Fund VCIC is regulated as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

The Schulte Group owns 90 vessels of all types and manages 630 through shipmanager Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM).