Some fleets grow one ship at a time, some grow by leaps in merger-and-acquisition deals.
Lately, the top-five table of third-party ship managers has a new look, largely thanks to a wave of acquisitions of a particular type: the purchase of well-established shipowners' in-house technical units, with contracts attached.
India's Synergy Marine took its place among the top five in September with its acquisition of the technical management business of Maersk Tankers' 82 ships.
Similar deals have made headlines over the past two years, not least by Norway's private equity-funded OSM, whose buys last year included SeaTeam Management, with 51 ships from John Fredriksen's Frontline and Golden Ocean, and the management unit of Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi with its 37 ships.
But the two managers that remain at the top of the rankings are sceptical.
Caravel Group-owned Fleet Management is among those that tout organic growth, and prides itself on steadily adding ships with no takeovers. It recently hit the 600-ship mark in vessels under full technical management, as opposed to technical management plus crewing contracts, the measure some competitors prefer.
That makes Fleet Management number two in the world by its preferred yardstick, behind only Hong Kong neighbour Anglo-Eastern Ship Management.
Fleet Management managing director Kishore Rajvanshy told TradeWinds that growing organically has left "a strong and lasting imprint in our DNA ... and has only strengthened our core values over time".
"The results speak for themselves: we average a steady 10% annualised growth rate for the past several years — in comparison, the industry average being 1% to 2%."
Anglo-Eastern, at the top of the chart, does have acquisitions in its history, including the 2015 acquisition of rival third-party manager Univan, whose chief executive, Bjorn Hojgaard, came along as part of the deal.
However, Hojgaard now seems all about organic growth.
"I really don't have any comments on what other companies in the sector do," he said.
"For Anglo-Eastern, we are happy with what we are doing, with small but steady growth every year. I've always said that good ship management is about partnering with like-minded owners, and that's what we try to do."
Manager | Fleet size (1) | Last large acquisition | Detention rate (three years of PSC inspection) |
1. Anglo-Eastern Ship Management | 657 | 2015: Univan (105 ships) | 0.5% |
2. Fleet Management | 591 | None known | 0.6% |
3. V.Ships | 564 | 2018: Norddeutsche Reederei (50 ships) | 1.2% |
4. Synergy Marine | 434 (= 352 + 82) (2) | 2021: Maersk Tankers (82 ships) | 1.2%, 0.7% (2) |
5. Bernhard Schulte Ship Management | 408 | 2008: Merger of four Schulte companies | 1.5% |
(1): Ships under full technical management according to Equasis; Equasis listings normally involve some delay and most managers say actual totals are larger. (2): Totals for Synergy record pre-Maersk Tankers and Maersk Tankers sums separately. |
The number-three technical manager — possibly number one, counting crewing contracts — is V.Ships, which has many subsidiary ship-management brands in its stable that it picked up over the years from owners including Costamare, Wilhelmsen and Graig.
And, sure enough, its Hamburg-based chief executive for ship management, Bjoern Sprotte, told TradeWinds he has nothing bad to say about acquisitions.
"Generally, we are always looking at growing our business," said Sprotte, who held a similar position at OSM in Norway at the height of its acquisition campaign.
He said there is still a lot of scope for growth by acquisition of shipowners' in-house managers. "The vast majority [of the world fleet] is still not outsourced," he said.
On the other hand, OSM expresses a preference for organic growth, despite its own high-profile recent acquisitions and its strong interest in the Maersk Tankers deal.
OSM chief executive Finn Amund Norbye said: "In OSM, we prioritise organic growth as our main avenue for growth."
But he characterised OSM's recent acquisitions as "a positive experience".
Danish-based news platform ShippingWatch reported that OSM's offer of $28m had lost out to a higher bid from Synergy.
Two ship managers who declined to be identified have cited a bid in the upper $30m region from Synergy as the decisive factor.
One ship management executive with insight into the bidding process did not comment on figures, but said: "I think it was a lot of money to ever earn back, based on standard ship-management fees."
Synergy’s Captain Rajesh Unni, who has previously commented on the Maersk deal, declined to be interviewed for this story unless TradeWinds agreed not to mention its rumoured winning bid in the high $30m range, which a Synergy executive described as "completely untrue".
Bernhard Schulte Ship Management chief executive Ian Beveridge also declined to be interviewed.
