Shipbroker Lightship Chartering has hired 10 new brokers for its office in Singapore, which the company said will boost its business in the Far East and Pacific region.
The hires were not named but Lightship described them as “reputable and well established”.
Lightship told TradeWinds that the new hires come from three different shops, the names of which it would not disclose.
The Singapore office, which handles bulkers of up to panamax in size, opened last year and is managed by Thorbjorn Mangor Zorn, who joined from Ifchor.
Lightship said it plans to boost its broker headcount to at least 250 worldwide over the next five years. It told TradeWinds that it employs 110 brokers currently.
“Our growth strategy will be executed organically through the hire of fresh and experienced talent, as well as through acquisitions of strategic teams,” Lightship said in a statement on Thursday.
“Either way, our creed as a company is to be the best in the market at what we do, and we will therefore always look for excellence when we take in new people.
“In this vein, the hire of our new colleagues in Singapore represents the perfect match, and will be followed by more hires both in Singapore and in our other eight offices going forward.”
Ten brokers are set to “graduate” from the company’s trainee programme, known as Lightship Academy, in May next year. The company said recruitment has started for the 2024 class.
Lightship’s headcount has suffered some attrition in the past couple of years as brokers have left to join rivals and set up their own outfits.
In May, five brokers who worked previously at Lightship’s offices in Athens plus another broker who was based in Geneva left to set up their own concern, GR8 Chartering Hellas.
Lightship’s office in Genoa closed last year after its seven brokers left to join rival SSY.
As well as Singapore, Lightship has a network of eight other offices around the world in Copenhagen; Athens, London, Oslo, Geneva, Dubai, Beijing and its newest in Miami.
This year, it added a new panamax desk in Athens headed by Dimitris Kompolias, who was previously a partner at rival shop Barry Rogliano Salles.
Lightship’s Copenhagen office had a profitable year in 2022 with net profit up by 17% year on year, totalling DKK 12.2m ($1.76m).
The Copenhagen branch of the company said in its annual report that it paid out more to brokers in wages and bonuses last year than in 2021 and planned to make future hires.
The group does not disclose its financial reports publicly.
