Dry-cargo shipbroker Lightship Chartering has reshuffled its Athens office following staff departures and has added a new panamax desk in the Greek capital.
Chief executive Sune Fladberg told TradeWinds that five brokers departed from its Athens base during April and May. Two brokers resigned and three were dismissed for “performance-related issues,” he said, without identifying the individuals.
“These recent changes have enabled us to hire a new manager for the office Mr Spiros Chalikias who comes with an impressive resumé in shipbroking and, all things considered, we are quite content with the developments,” Fladberg said.
TradeWinds has confirmed that brokers Lambros Vergos, Arkadios Svolakis, Komninos Svolakis, Thodoris Vavatsioulas have left Lightship in Athens and will start their own broking venture in the city. Harys Angelakos has also resigned from Lightship’s Geneva office and will join them.
Oliver Frederik Hocke Rohde has also left his position at Lightship in Geneva and is heading to Norden to be the owner-operator’s chartering manager for supramaxes in the Atlantic.
Broker Rasmus Skafdrup Hellesen has also resigned from Lightship in the Swiss city.
Lightship’s new panamax desk in Athens is being headed by Dimitris Kompolias, who was previously a partner at rival shop Barry Rogliano Salles (BRS).
“With the existing brokers there and the potential for development from the new guys we consider ourselves in a stronger position than ever in Greece,” said Fladberg.
“With the additions to the desks in Greece and worldwide we are status quo on personnel for the year and we expect a lot more growth in our two newest offices, namely Singapore and Miami in the foreseeable future.”
Meanwhile, Lightship aims to develop new talent through its new Lightship Academy initiative, a specialised broker education programme.
“Lightship Academy will kick off in September this year and will be a company-wide programme as we see it as our duty to bring talents into the industry at large,” Fladberg said.
Profitable year
Lightship had a profitable year in 2022 with net profit up by 17% year on year.
The company said in its annual report that it paid out more to brokers in wages and bonuses last year and plans to make future hires.
“We have significantly enhanced our compensation model for brokers in 2022, resulting in the highest remuneration payout in the history of Lightship, both in absolute figures and proportionate to turnover,” the company said in its report, filed earlier this month.
“In a highly competitive market, where all our peers are aggressively seeking more manpower, we are proud to have retained our performing employees worldwide, while adding highly skilled personnel where required to expand our operations.”
Profit before tax for 2022 was DKK 12.2m, up from DKK 10.4m the year before, according to the annual report filed with the Danish business registry.
In August last year Lightship lost its Genoa office when seven staff resigned to join rival Simpson Spence Young (SSY).
