Expanding UK shipowner Union Maritime has beefed up its board with the appointment of two key executives.
Filings from Companies House show that chief operating officer Matt Enston and finance chief Michael Kotsapas became directors on 4 April.
They will now sit at a top table comprised of seven people, including managing director and founder Laurent Cadji.
Enston told TradeWinds the appointments were “simply part of the evolution of the company and its management”.
Trading veteran Lewis Cadji is also a director and serves as chairman, and brothers Bhupendra and Ramesh Kansagra, representing their family investment company Solai Holdings, have seats.
Sarita Kraljevic is the seventh name on the list.
Enston, 46, is also the shipowner’s general counsel, having joined in 2023.
He has stints as a lawyer for Trafigura, Shell and Goldman Sachs on his CV, having spent five years at law firm Reed Smith from 2022.
Kotsapas, 46, joined in 2016 from Moore Stephens, where he was a shipping and transport partner.
TradeWinds revealed in 2021 how the London-based Kansagra family, with extensive holdings in the African oil industry, emerged as co-owners in Union Maritime.
Low-key backers
Ramesh and Bhupendra Kansagra are low-key shareholders but substantial ones, who have stayed out of the spotlight since the company was founded in 2006.
Documents including court papers and corporate filings show that they are equal shareholders with the Cadji family in most Union Maritime affiliates for which information is accessible.
In March, TradeWinds reported that Union Maritime signed for six tanker newbuildings in the Far East, lifting its tally of the vessel type it has on order to 26 ships worth more than $1bn.
Shipbuilding sources following the company’s newbuilding activities said it had returned to China’s Wuhu Shipbuilding for the vessels.
It commissioned two 49,000-dwt product carriers and four IMO type 2 methanol-ready product/chemical tankers. The MR deal included two optional vessels.
The company has a diversified fleet of 65 vessels comprising 51 tankers, 12 bulkers and two offshore vessels.
