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Greece
economou family
Key roles for kin in economou empire
LNG remit for son Christos while nephew Anthony Kandylidis looks after offshore
GEORGE Economou’s shipping empire has grown increasingly
diversified in recent years. While the dry bulk and tanker sectors
are far from being ignored by the entrepreneur, it should come
as no surprise that investments have favoured two hot sectors
that are outshining the rest of the shipping markets: liquefied
natural gas carriers and offshore. Although Mr Economou has a
highly capable team of executives backing him, it is noticeable
that the roles of spearheading development in these two key
sectors have gone to close kin.
Son Christos Economou has taken charge of the Cardiff
Marine group’s move into the LNG sector and is said to be
personally handling this part of the business empire.
After majoring in quantitative economics at Tufts University
in the US and obtaining his masters at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Christos Economou started his professional career
as a Wall Street M&A banker but quickly turned to shipping. He
joined Heidmar and its tanker chartering and trading platform
before deciding to enter the private family shipping business.
In addition to the diversification into LNG, he has established
an in-house investments and trading division, which he
continues to oversee, and is understood to also be involved in
the day-to-day management of the tanker division.
The LNG division comprises a recently acquired 2004-built
145,000 cu m vessel, Fugi LNG, which continues to be managed
for Cardiff by sellers Oman Shipping, as well as four 159,800 cu
m newbuildings for delivery in 2014 from Daewoo Shipbuilding
& Marine Engineering. Altogether, the move represents an
investment of more than $1bn.
The younger Mr Economou’s challenges include not only
chartering of the new vessels, one of which has recently been
fixed for close to four years at what is described as “a very strong
10 next generation 2012
Offshore focus:
Anthony Kandylidis
rate”, but also taking the management of the first LNG vessel inhouse.
According to company sources, the group sees potential
to grow further in the LNG sector.
In another sign of the younger Mr Economou’s
entrepreneurial mettle, he has headed up the $500m Oceanus
fund for investment in distressed shipping assets.
Meanwhile, the key Nasdaq-listed ultra-deepwater drilling
arm of the group, DryShips’ subsidiary Ocean Rig UDW, appears
to be largely under the supervision of Mr Economou’s nephew,
Anthony Kandylidis.
Mr Kandylidis, 35, is seen internally as the current right
hand of the globetrotting tycoon and has already amassed a
formidable curriculum vitae.
He spent four years at OMI, chiefly in the commercial
department, and has previously described this start to his
career as “being in the right place, at the right time, with the
right people”.
In 2006, Mr Kandylidis founded OceanFreight Inc as a
shipowner with a fleet of bulkers and tankers, which he took
public the following year with a listing on Nasdaq.
Over the next four years, the company was repositioned as an
owner of large modern bulk carriers with a fleet of four capesizes
and two panamaxes in the water as well as five very large ore
carriers on order in China.
The company, at the time majority-owned by Mr Kandylidis,
was absorbed by DryShips in a 2011 merger valued at $238m.
Mr Kandylidis, who is said to be a frequent traveller to Ocean
Rig’s headquarters in Norway but keeps tabs on other aspects
of the group’s shipping business as well, graduated from Brown
University in the US and obtained his masters in ocean systems
management at MIT.
Driving LNG:
Christos Economou