Managers

The world’s management hub

Hong Kong remains preeminent when it comes to looking after other people’s vessels

Hong Kong can lay claim to having three out of the 10 largest shipmanagers in the world (see chart below), plus a host of up and coming brands. The government has made the business a tax-friendly one and managers these days form arguably a more important cluster than owners in the city’s maritime DNA.

At the top of the global rankings is Anglo-Eastern, chaired by Peter Cremers with Bjorn Hojgaard (pictured) as CEO. In June the company diversified, buying Cruise Management International (CMI). CMI manages cruise ships ranging from smaller passenger ships and coastal vessels to larger 2,000-passenger vessels in the expedition, Arctic operations, luxury adventure and educational cruising markets, in all regions of the world.

“The shareholders are pleased to pass the entire share capital of CMI to the new owner Anglo-Eastern, which has the scale, reputation, and technical capability to develop the business and continue the services provided to CMI’s clients and customers in the bespoke expedition cruise sector,” said a statement from CMI. “Anglo-Eastern believes its values mirror those of CMI and is delighted to have found the opportunity to extend its ship management operations into a new sector, with the acquisition of such respected operators.” Anglo-Eastern, founded in 1974, has grown through both organic growth and sizeable acquisitions over the years, including the 2001 merger with Denholm Ship Management and the 2015 merger with Univan Group.

Earlier in the year, Anglo-Eastern formed a procurement joint venture, Sea Sourcing, with the world’s largest boxship tonnage provider, Seaspan. Seaspan said the joint venture would provide access to better value propositions, stronger negotiation power, improved risk mitigation, knowledge sharing and also seek to deliver enhanced value to supply partners by engaging them in longer-term partnerships. Last month, Anglo-Eastern’s flagship maritime training centre in Mumbai celebrated the inauguration of its new premises at Leela Business Park in Andheri East. The new training space is home to Anglo-Eastern Maritime Training Centre (AEMTC) Mumbai and the associated partner facilities of MAN PrimeServ, WinGD and Wӓrtsilӓ. “The rejuvenation of our flagship training centre is symbolic of our continued investment in and commitment to lifelong learning, which has been key to Anglo-Eastern’s DNA and success over the years,” commented Hojgaard on the opening.

“Anglo-Eastern has grown through both organic growth and sizeable acquisitions over the years”

‘The go-to partner for shipowners’

Fleet Management has seen many more ships join its ranks this year

In 2024 Fleet Management will celebrate its 30th anniversary. It remains one of the world’s fastest growing managers with more than 600 ships on its books and in Kishore Rajvanshy, managing director from day one, it has one of the true stalwarts of the industry.

The Caravel Group subsidiary has had a busy year with plenty more vessels joining its ranks. The biggest moment news-wise took place in June in Singapore where the company launched a new integrated shipmanagement unit – MaruFleet Management (MaruFleet) – in collaboration with MMSL, a subsidiary of Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, a company

Fleet has been working with since 2014. .

“We see our relationship with Fleet as a partnership,” said Tomohiro Endo, managing director of MMSL. “We share the same philosophy and vision in growing our businesses through a clear focus on safety, quality and technical management.”

“We have positioned ourselves as the go-to partner for shipowners who want to be proactive and collaborative when it comes to facing the industry’s biggest challenges and changes in the coming decades - whether it’s about greener fuels for shipping, adopting digital

“We see our relationship with Fleet as a partnership”

technology, or retrofits and newbuilding considerations to ensure a vessel can sail today and in 20 years,” Rajvanshy tells Splash.

New appointments at Wallem

AS COMPETITION GROWS in the field of shipmanagement, it can be difficult for companies to set themselves apart.

At Wallem, group CEO John-Kaare Aune says the company strives to deliver high-quality maritime solutions tailored to a shipowner’s individual needs.

“We also position ourselves as a trusted and forward-thinking partner with a focus on managing the ship of the future – something we are well equipped for given our expertise in modern shipboard technology and processes,” Aune tells Splash.

Aune says his clients appreciate both the cost efficiencies and quality that Wallem services provide.

“After all,” he says, “downtime is very more costly, our role is to ensure their vessels are properly managed and maintained in the most cost efficient way.”

In March Wallem appointed Ioannis Stefanou as managing director of Wallem Ship Management, with responsibility for the oversight and strategic planning of the company’s shipmanagement activities worldwide. Stefanou joined Wallem in 2014 to lead its technical management

In August Alastair Marsh, the former CEO of class society Lloyd’s Register, was appointed to Wallem’s board.

Afloat repairs professionally

Mr Ved Chhabra

Chairman & Managing Director

Mr R.C. Yadav

General Manager

Mr Vijay Vaz

Commercial Manager International Ship Repair FZE, is a well-established two-decade old company providing expert repair solutions at Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates. Having successfully accomplished many major repairs along with numerous other small repair attendances be it at anchorages or alongside jetty, we are proud to state that we now serve as a leading afloat repair company in the region.

Our recent venture into BWTS retrofit, either alongside repair jetty or vide our trained capable sailing squads has earned a reputation as a reliable retrofitter of various BWTS systems.

To ensure comprehensiveness of repair for our clients, we maintain a diverse team to cater to a wide range of services ensuring well planned, efficiently organized schedules with proven record of timely deliveries, this ensuring that the vessel gets back to commercial operation on time, every time. To achieve this goal, we have invested in state of art equipment, good infrastructure, excellent logistics support via a large fleet of vehicles, extensive handling facilities such as forklifts and cranes, efficient supplier network and we ensure continual training for our teams for constant improvement in performance.

We believe that the whole team at International Ship Repair has significantly contributed to the company’s growth. The skill, knowledge, and expertise of our 1000+ employees ensure the quality of output defining us as a positive, capable, and noteworthy company.

Under the guidance of the Chairman & Owner Mr. Ved S Chhabra, the key Management team for the company, headed by the General Manager Mr. R C Yadav, along with the Commercial Manager Mr. Vijay Vaz, and the Marketing Manager Mr. S N Iyer have been instrumental in the phenomenal growth of the company and in honing it as one of the best the industry has to offer.