A new tanker venture set up in Athens by members of the Procopiou family has sealed its first acquisition, buying an LR1 from Danish giant Hafnia.
The 76,600-dwt Hafnia Thames (built 2008) has emerged in the fleet of Akrotiri Tankers under its new name, Bam Bam.
Akrotiri applied for registration with authorities in late June and obtained it in July, according to Greek shipping ministry documents.
TradeWinds is told that the firm is run by Marielena Procopiou — one of the four daughters of Greek shipping magnate George Procopiou — and her husband, Konstantinos Lampsias.
LinkedIn shows Konstantinos Charitonidis, a former manager at the tanker and bunkers operations desk of Greek peer TMS Tankers, as Akrotiri’s operations manager.
It is nothing unusual for individual members of the Procopiou family to set up their own ventures parallel to their main family businesses, Dynacom Tankers Management and Sea Traders, where they each hold equal stakes.
Marielena’s sister, Ioanna Procopio, and her husband, John Kairis, formed another separate shipping venture in 2010 called Prominence Maritime.
Akrotiri is not Marielena’s first shipping venture.
According to her LinkedIn page, she has also founded Delos Navigation, a bulker management entity that registered with Greek authorities in 2021.
VesselsValue lists the Chinese-built Hafnia Thames sold by Hafnia in May at an undisclosed price.
It was the second-oldest LR1 in the Hafnia fleet and one of the six oldest vessels in its entire owned fleet of more than 100 tankers.
LR1 expansion
Akrotiri’s decision to swoop on an LR1 is in line with moves by other Greek companies to expand in the sector this year.
In June, Piraeus-based Spring Marine emerged as the buyer of the 74,000-dwt TTC Shakti (renamed Pop, built 2008) — another Chinese-built LR1 that was reported sold in mid-April by United Arab Emirates-based Transworld Group for between $27m and $28.5m.
As for Hafnia, the sale of the Hafnia Thames is the latest in a long string of divestments in its fleet renewal plans.
As TradeWinds reported, Hafnia sold five LR1s in 2023 alone, all built in 2007 and 2008.
One of them emerged with Cyprus’ Pelagic Partners and four with Paragon Mobility — a Singapore-registered firm linked to UAE-based trader Quantum Global.
In 2022, Hafnia sold three MR tankers to Turkey’s Beks Ship Management and three to Greek companies Sea Hawk Maritime and Velos Tankers.
Its shake-out of older tonnage seems to be continuing: this month several brokers in the US, the UK and Greece reported on the sale of the 50,300-dwt Hafnia Pegasus (built 2010) to undisclosed buyers for about $28.5m.
