Columbia Group has decided to terminate Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement (TCM) — its joint venture with Greece’s Tsakos Group.
Both sides said the “successful” technical management operation is coming an end, with Schoeller Holdings-controlled Columbia selling its shares to its partner.
“Following this decision, the Tsakos Group has now acquired full ownership of TCM,” a statement said. “This leaves both companies free to pursue their own business development strategies.”
They said the move marks the end of a 12-year partnership from which both shareholders have considerably benefited.
But this is not the end of their working together, with the two groups continuing to cooperate on “many existing and future projects”.
The TCM name will be changed, but there was no word on what the new branding will be.
The joint statement said: “We have enjoyed our collaboration and our continued friendship and future cooperation will not be affected by this decision.”
Neither side is making any further comment.
TCM was set up in Tsakos’ Athens office to provide technical management services to third parties as well as the Greek company’s own fleet.
At the time, a source within the Tsakos Group told TradeWinds that the intention was to carry out an initial public offering.
Lack of management services
“Our aim is in anywhere between two to four years to float this company and be one of the first technical management companies that is public,” the source said.
A driving force behind the project was the lack of third-party management services in Greece, traditionally the world’s largest shipowning nation.
In 2020, TradeWinds reported that a total of $1.3m was paid by US-listed Tsakos shipowning company Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) to TCM for “additional services” relating to information technology, corporate governance training and seafarer training.
The total was down from $2m in 2019 and $2.4m in 2018.
