Broking giant Simpson Spence Young (SSY) has revealed that its new Genoa office will be staffed with a team from its rival Lightship Chartering.
Seven staff from Lightship will join the dry cargo-focused office when it opens on 1 September.
The new hub will be managed by Luca Domenico Capitanio and Luca Sambataro, who will make up the panamax team with Paolo Bovenga.
Stefano Di Paola, Giuseppe Oliviero, Francesco Spotorno and Giulia Terracciano will join them and will focus on handysize and supramax business.
TradeWinds understands the staff have resigned from Lightship, which leaves the firm without any presence in Genoa. Lightship has already removed mention of its Genoa office and staff from its website.
This leaves Lightship with an international network of offices in Athens, Beijing, Copenhagen, Dubai, Geneva, London, Oslo, Singapore and its Miami branch, which opened last year.
Lightship said in a LinkedIn update last month that it aims to reach 200 employees and add four new business units by 2026 at the latest. TradeWinds has approached the company for further comment.
As TradeWinds reported on Wednesday, the new Genoa office is part of SSY's continuing expansion around the world.
“We’re very pleased to be establishing a base in Genoa and continuing to grow our Dry Cargo division,” Stanko Jekov, SSY's global head of dry cargo and incoming chairman, said this week.
“I’m also delighted to welcome a very talented team to the SSY group, and we look forward to working with them on new opportunities in this region”
SSY expanded its global network with the acquisition of Anchor Shipbroking in Athens this year and is understood to be on the hunt to hire other brokers. Anchor has been merged into the new office that SSY opened in Athens in 2021.
Last month, SSY confirmed that it has scooped three senior tanker brokers from rival shipbroker Charles R Weber in the US and made a new hire for its financial unit, SSY Finance.
SSY in June poached three handysize brokers in Singapore from its rival Maersk Broker Bulk Chartering.
Outgoing chairman Mark Richardson, who will retire at the end of this year, told TradeWinds last year that he would like to grow the headcount to 500 or 600 people. SSY currently employs around 400 staff worldwide.
