United Maritime does not plan to move further away from its mainstream shipping focus after a move to diversify into the offshore vessel sector, chief executive Stamatis Tsantanis told TradeWinds.
His comment came after the New York-listed shipowner, a spin-off of Seanergy Maritime Holdings, revealed it took a minority stake in an offshore construction vessel newbuilding.
While United Maritime has owned tankers and was set up with diversification in mind, it only owned bulkers at the time of the transaction.
Tsantanis said the company intends to stick to mainstream shipping.
“I think that this offshore ship is as exotic as we’ll go,” he said.
“We will not try to reinvent the wheel. And so far, we have proven that we can be profitable and can have good entry and exit points in the mainstream segments.”
United spun off from Seanergy in 2022 in a $25m IPO.
With one bulker in its inaugural fleet, the Greek newcomer bought up a quartet of tankers before selling them all off at a profit in less than a year.
It then turned its attention to expanding its bulker fleet, before starting to sell in that sector as well.
“It’s a pure asset play, and we get into opportunities that we believe may be very profitable for our shareholders,” said Tsantanis, who is also the chief executive of Seanergy.
He said that United joined as a minority shareholder in the offshore vessel because it is not an area where the small company has expertise.
“We partnered up with some highly experienced people and we said, ‘OK, we’re just going to have a 20% to 25% stake in this venture and see how it goes’,” Tsantanis said.
United Maritime’s financial figures for the second quarter and first half.
| Q2 2024 | Q2 2023 | H1 2024 | H1 2023 | |
| Revenue | $12.4m | $10m | $23m | $12.8m |
| Vessel operating expenses | $4.76m | $6.03m | $9.92m | $9.14m |
| Net income | $672,000 | -$3.03m | -$668,000 | -$7.91m |
| Adjusted net income (common shareholders) | $912,000 | -$2.09m | -$216,000 | -$5.74m |
“I don’t really see any downside. It’s a great ship. It’s a great shipyard. The partners are amazing. These vessels are in very high demand these days.”
United has not identified the offshore vessel newbuilding, but is believed to be the energy construction vessel ordered last week by Norwind Offshore-linked company Wind Energy Construction, which will be built by Norway’s Vard at its shipyard in Vietnam.
Tsantanis said the company had the cash in place for the investment, and it did not hamper its ability to pay its dividend to shareholders.
He said United is a rare spin-off that has not carried out dilutive share sales to fund growth moves.
