Lightship Chartering chairman Morten Have said a division of labour was needed at the top of the organisation for the global shipbroker to keep growing, as he outlined recent changes in senior management.

Lightship appointed Genco Shipping & Trading managing director Sune Fladberg as its new chief executive this week, allowing partner Gian Luca Garufi to resume his exclusive focus on broking.

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Have told TradeWinds: "Gian Luca is a broker, and to work a 14-hour day as a broker and then be a CEO is impossible.

"It's easy to be a CEO when you have 30 people around you, but we don't have many internal managers here. I'm still a broker."

He added: "Why take away a good broker to be a CEO? We'd been thinking about this for a couple of years.

"But you have to find the right character to step in and be accepted by the team. It's a very demanding role."

Natural solution

Of Fladberg, Have said: "This is a guy I've known for 15 years and been in daily contact with.

Sune Fladberg, chief executive of Lightship Chartering. Photo: Clipper

"Shipping is quite a social thing, as you know, so it just became natural.

"It had to happen this way. If you asked either of us, who first approached who, we wouldn't be able to tell you. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

The new man comes in at a time of crisis, with the coronavirus pandemic rewriting how shipping operates.

Most Lightship brokers are working from home. Some offices are closed, and others are operating with a skeleton staff.

Have said brokers sometimes make occasional visits to the offices to retrieve documents.

"It's been a complete eye-opener for me," Have said. "I am an old-school dinosaur who thought that shipbroking needed to be done in an office and with a team, but the boys have been devoted and are taking lots of responsibility."

If you asked either of us, who first approached who, we wouldn't be able to tell you. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Lightship Chartering chairman Morten Have

In terms of the changes during the lockdown, Have said the shop is better placed than some because it is well connected to cargoes for its chartering operations.

"In a time of crisis, people want cargo," he said.

Have added that tankers and bulkers had their best month so far this year in March.

Tankers have been particularly strong, but he said bulkers have not been "that bad, apart from the last three or four days, when they have been dropping like a stone".

As the company does more and more business in Asia and the Middle East, Lightship is looking at opening an office there to complement its Dubai operations.

But, Have added, it is also considering opening up in India, Japan or China this year.

More brokers will be recruited and new business areas pursued, he said.

The shipbroker has been busy recruiting at other levels in the past month.

Lightship at a glance
  • Established in 1975
  • Based in Geneva, with seven other global offices
  • Panel broker for the Baltic Exchange in handysize and handymax market
  • Active in tankers and bulkers
  • Pursuing moves into S&P and capesizes
  • New chief executive is Sune Fladberg
  • Executive chairman is Morten Have
  • More than 100 brokers on the books
  • Opened in Dubai in 2018
  • Other offices in London, Copenhagen, Oslo, Beijing, Athens and Genoa

Brokers Adam Cook, Alex Whyte, Maxim Romce and Guy Heskins have all joined the desk in London, adding years of experience.

It now has more than 10 brokers in the UK capital, and Lightship said further hires are to come in the second quarter.

The company has also strengthened its financial department by bringing in Susanne Bonde as head of finance.

Bulker background

Fladberg had been at Genco since May 2018, most recently as its managing director.

Prior to that, he had joined Clipper Group as a trainee in 2007, and gained extensive chartering experience in the ultramax, supramax and handysize markets.

He was also vice president and part of Clipper’s global bulk management team, and head of worldwide handysize chartering.

Lightship employs more than 100 people in eight offices around the world.

In 2018, the company was in the midst of another expansion drive, and TradeWinds reported that it was targeting moves into sale and purchase and capesizes.

The brokerage also opened its doors in Dubai for the first time, following on from its bases in London, Beijing and Genoa.

In 2015, it had just 24 brokers working dry bulk exclusively.