Providing a lot more than tonnage
Interunity Group has come a long way from being a traditional type of Greece-based shipmanagement outfit and is looking to evolve further in future.
To Interunity Group, there is a distinction to be drawn between being a shipping company ― which it aspires to be ― and a tonnage provider, a category into which most traditional Greek shipowners fall.
“Many Greeks are very good at it, but life can be more challenging as a tonnage provider. The main tool you have at your disposal is your entry point,” argues Interunity’s George Mangos, the group’s co-principal, together with brother Christos.
“We have been a tonnage provider but we wanted to migrate to being a shipping company, where we participate in the freight and other aspects of the business.
“As a shipping company, at least you have more tools and you can take positions at any point in the market cycle. You can make money when the market is going up ― or the market is going down,” he says.
Interunity started out in the early 1980s as a third-party manager. Among early activities, a family involvement with Naftomar Shipping & Trading, a long-established name in the world of liquefied petroleum gas shipping, led to a contract for managing LPG carriers.
In the 2000s, another key contract saw Interunity manage tankers for Hellenic Petroleum.
“Third-party anything is a less-forgiving environment and you have to work very hard for your clients, so I think that legacy is important,” Mr Mangos says.
For more than a decade, the group has had close ties with institutional investors whose identity remains shielded but have clearly had an influence over Interunity’s latter-day course.
“They are very good at what they do ― and we have learned a great deal from them,” he says.
“Institutional money is very particular. You have to report to a high standard and you have to add value, and there is a dogged focus on achieving returns. The size of the fleet does not matter so much, as it does for some traditional shipowners.”
Since 2010, the group has been co-investing with the banks and funds with which it works closest.
“We started as a service provider and evolved into becoming an operating partner,” Mr Mangos confirms.
“In shipping, you have to be very disciplined. You have to be ready to walk away from investment opportunities and not execute. The institutions we work with have been very good at that and it has become part of our DNA now.”
The group currently has an involvement in a fleet of about 70 ships, including vessels in which it has an ownership participation, but also those that are under technical or commercial management.
There is a bias towards product and chemical tankers, but the fleet also includes dry bulk carriers, multipurpose vessels, containerships and LPG carriers.
Mr Mangos advises that not too much significance should be attached to the number of ships.
“It is very fluid,” he says. During 2020, for example, there was a turnover of about 30 vessels entering or existing the fleet.
“It is not about expansion for the sake of expansion.”
Interunity Management Corporation (IMC) currently has an eclectic list of about 30 vessels under technical management.
Last year, there was a significant development in the group’s commercial management activities when it unveiled a new joint venture with Lars Ebbesen, who is best known as co-founder of US-based commercial tanker manager Sokana three decades ago.
Sokana has gone through a number of incarnations, most recently under the control of Navig8 Chemicals, but always with Mr Ebbesen as the common thread.
The new joint venture rebooted SOKANA, bringing it under the Interunity Group.
Since the past year, the fleet has grown to an aggregate of more than 1m dwt, comprising 35 product and chemical tankers, ranging from 13,000 dwt to 50,000 dwt ― although the fleet also includes one larger long-range tanker.
The move is said to have been a response to investment funds seeking to increase spot market exposure and hence more active commercial management after the expiry of longer period charters on a number of the tankers.
The product and chemical tanker market is “more complex” than dry cargo, says Mr Mangos.
“In the parcel space, you can really add value, whether the market is high or low, whereas it is much harder to do that in dry [cargo].”
Despite the hot containership market and the very robust recovery in dry bulk this year, the Mangos brothers have a measured view of current prospects for shipping.
“I think our outlook is cautiously optimistic, but there are very significant reefs that everyone has to navigate around. It does not feel like a time for unbridled optimism,” says George Mangos.
“As long as there is volatility, there are opportunities. But whatever you do, you should be mindful of the downside. Things do go wrong all the time.”
Underlining Interunity’s outlier status as a group within Greece’s maritime community is the fact that it also includes Burlington Asset Services, a specialist risk management service provider to institutions with an interest in the industry.
BAS’s service spans “asset monitoring, debt portfolio advisory, debt portfolio management, portfolio restructuring and beyond”, according to its website.
In addition to equity investments in assets, the group has begun to co-invest in debt. Examples of cases providing debt investment opportunities include financing the buyer in case of the sale of an asset, or partnering an institution investing in non-performing loans.
As to the group’s future, Christos Mangos, who is chief executive of IMC, emphasises the need to remain agile.
“We have a roadmap for some big changes of direction over the next years but I am sure that we will look back afterwards and see that things did not happen as we planned. You have to be ready to change and discard the ideas you had in your head.”
Pushed for more detail on what Interunity has in mind, he says: “We will certainly be diversifying within shipping but we have started to evolve outside shipping as well. Greek shipowners have classically done this,” he points out.
This article is part of Lloyd’s List’s special report on ‘Greece & Cyprus’, which can be viewed in full here.
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