Following up on the hiring of brokers in Madrid last week, Braemar announced on Monday the launch of a Greek corporate finance desk in Athens, led by Stefanos Fragos.
The former DVB and YieldSteet executive is to help local clients raise debt and equity, alongside offering the whole gamut of mergers, acquisitions and restructuring services.
“Amongst several other promising opportunities for 2023, Braemar sees great potential in sourcing capital from Asia and making this available to smaller and medium-sized Greek shipowners,” the brokerage said in a press release.
Fragos will report to Axel Siepmann, Braemar’s global head of corporate finance who oversees the company’s related teams in Hamburg, London and Singapore.
“We have been looking for the right candidate for a long time and we are very grateful that Stefanos has agreed to join our team,” Siepmann said.
Fragos spent 16 years at DVB, where he was responsible for $800m worth of shipping transactions with major clients, such as US-listed Safe Bulkers.
In December 2018, he joined Yieldstreet, an alternative finance provider, which was looking for somebody to build a maritime finance hub in Athens but later retrenched its shipping activities.
“I expect we’ll see more business volume in capital raising — whether in lease capital, debt, equity or joint ventures — particularly as market uncertainties clear away,” Fragos told TradeWinds in an interview at Braemar Athens’ offices in the seaside suburb of Glyfada.
According to Fragos, shipping clients have ample financing options, despite rising interest rates. “There are plenty of very active lenders out there,” he said.
He points to US funds and investors he became familiar with during his time at Yieldstreet, as well as to boutique European lenders that can serve small and medium-sized Greek owners.
As far as individual shipping segments are concerned, Braemar expects that tanker earnings have yet to peak, after which they will correct in 2023 and eventually stabilise well above historical levels at least until 2026.
Environmental regulations and a low orderbook may also spur Greek S&P activity in bulkers from January onwards.
The full Monty
Fragos’ hiring puts Braemar’s Athens office more firmly on the map as a full-range service provider, nearly three years after it was set up.
Led by managing director Dimitris Kyrtsos, Braemar Athens currently employs a staff of 15 that includes brokers for chartering and S&P brokers, as well as senior research analyst Alexandra Alatari.
In line with Braemar policy, the Athens office is not set up as a separate profit centre and therefore does not operate in direct competition with the company's other branches.
“The idea behind Braemar Athens is for us to be an extension of London and our other offices around the world,” Kyrtsos said.
Greek clients accounted for a large part of Braemar’s business even before the company set up shop in Athens.
Despite all the digitalization and remote working habits in the Covid era, having feet on the ground in the Greek capital matters.
“Greek clients appreciate the physical presence and a direct local contact, I can see that every day,” Fragos said.
After the initial hiring of S&P broker Marios Yiannopoulos in early 2020, Braemar Athens grew gradually and organically, supported by rising shipping markets — first in containers, then bulkers and tankers.
Expansion is set to continue.
“We have identified dry cargo as an area we want to continue growing,” Kyrtsos said.
