Yoda PLC — a diversified Cyprus-based group primarily active in hotels and real estate — has made a big push into shipping, acquiring an 18% stake in Capital Product Partners (CPLP) for $160m.
CPLP sponsor Evangelos Marinakis revealed in a filing that Capital Maritime & Trading, the private shipping firm he controls, sold 10m of CPLP’s common units to Yoda at $16 each.
The news comes a fortnight after Marinakis backstopped a $500m rights offer in CPLP at $14.25 per unit — a move that temporarily catapulted his family’s stake in the company to about 74%.
Following the sale to Yoda on 27 December, Capital Maritime’s stake in CPLP fell back to 54%. Capital Gas, controlled by Marinakis’ son, maintains a 2% holding.
Yoda, which is listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange, said the “arm’s length” CPLP deal forms part of a “business plan to further invest and expand its activities in the shipping sector”.
Having started in 2019, Nicosia-based Yoda was known until October 2022 as Papaduck Investments.
The controlling shareholder of Yoda is Ioannis Papalekas, the Greek founder of the London Stock Exchange-listed real estate company Globalworth Real Estate Investments.
Papalekas, who left Globalworth in December 2020, has been described in the past by the Greek press as the 'King of Romanian real estate'. He has also attracted interest for owning the famous “Nammos” club on the Greek island of Myconos.
Yoda chief executive Alon Bar is an Israel-born manager experienced in financial services and real estate investment.
The management team includes Cypriot executives Marios Alexandrou, who is head of operations & compliance, chief financial officer Stavros Ioannou and Achilleas Dorotheou, head of hospitality & development.
Real estate and hotels have been the bulk of Yoda’s business to date. According to its first-half 2023 results, about €19.3m ($21.3m) of its €23.1m revenue in that period came from the sectors.
According to its website, the group’s philosophy is to implement investment strategies while at the same time assessing “the right point in time to enter or exit each investment to achieve the best results for its shareholders”.
Yoda, which also has investments in technology, healthcare and a business jet, is not a newcomer to shipping.
Papalekas said in an SEC filing that he has been active in the business for years, “successfully co-investing alongside very experienced and successful operators and entrepreneurs”.
Yoda's previous shipping investments primarily concerned bulkers and were held through participations and share exchange deals involving various associated companies and subsidiaries including Freeway Success, Sea Velvet Holding, Papajust Investments and Papaseas Maritime.
Large-scale transformation
Yoda’s investment in CPLP, however, is of an entirely different magnitude.
The firm has become the first big investor known to have joined the Marinakis company since it announced in November a large-scale transformation to become a pure-play LNG firm.
CPLP will spend the $500m raised in the rights offer to help fund a $3.1bn acquisition from Capital Maritime of 11 LNG carrier newbuildings due for delivery between 2023 and 2027.
Thus transformed and rebranded as Capital New Energy Carriers LP, the company intends to gradually divest its container ships, which it no longer considers part of its core business.
CPLP currently has a fleet of 15 boxships and eight latest-generation LNG carriers.
The pending acquisition of 10 more LNG carriers from the Marinakis stable will turn Capital New Energy Carriers into the largest US publicly listed owner of two-stroke LNG ships.
