Many of the biggest names in the Greek shipping industry, but also dynamic and important service providers, were recognised with prestigious awards on Friday, December 1 as the 2023 Lloyd’s List Greek Shipping Awards were presented in front of an industry audience of about 1,100 guests.
The event marked the 20th Anniversary of the Greek Shipping Awards and was full of reminders of the history of the shipping world’s biggest awards event, Physical signage as well as impressive digital graphics throughout the event paid tribute to more than 300 individuals, companies and organisations that have been honoured with the iconic white and blue marble trophy over the past two decades.
A special 20 Years Achievement Award recognised the extraordinary energy and growth of the Greek LNG shipping sector as a world leader over the same time span as the Greek Shipping Awards. Seven major LNG leaders and first-movers in the sector, representing 185 LNG carriers – more than 90% of the Greek-controlled fleet, were awarded on the night.
The other special Award of the night saw Evangelos M. Marinakis and Capital Product Partners (CPLP) named as the winners of the Deal of the Decade Award for their 2008 deal to spin off CPLP’s tanker fleet in a $1.65 billion merger with Diamond S Shipping.
Shipowner George Procopiou was named Greek Shipping Personality of the Year for a historic second time, while International Chamber of Shipping president Emanuele Grimaldi was unveiled as the International Personality of the Year for an unprecedented second time.
Other major individual awards included the Lloyd’s List / Propeller Club Lifetime Achievement Award that went to shipowner Nicholas G. Moundreas, chairman of NGM Energy.
Newsmaker of the Year was Kriton Lentoudis, of Evalend Shipping, for another extraordinarily active year in contracting of newbuildings.
The Next Generation Shipping Award, for industry personalities of no more than 40 years of age, went to Petros Panagiotidis, of Castor Maritime and Toro Corp.
Captain Kyriakos Mouzakis, master of Zante Ferries’ ro-ro passenger ferry Adamantios Korais, was honoured as Seafarer of the Year for his outstanding conduct in August 2023 when the Alexandroupolis Hospital was evacuated and his vessel took patients to Kavalla, acting as an operational hospital ship.
In a welcome address, Greek deputy minister of Shipping & Island Policy Ioannis Pappas, representing Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, offered his congratulations to the nominees as well as the winners of the 2023 Awards.
Neptune Maritime Leasing was the overall lead sponsor of the Greek Shipping Awards for the first time.
Guests enjoyed a pre-dinner drinks reception hosted by Erma First while CMB Financial Leasing offered the traditional champagne toast to the health of Greek shipping.
A donation from proceeds of the event went to ‘Argo’, the charity supporting children with disabilities in the families of Greek seafarers.
The legendary windsurfer Nikos Kaklamanakis, an Olympic gold and silver medalist who was the recipient of a special ‘Man of the Sea’ Award at the inaugural 2004 Greek Shipping Awards, formally presented the donation to Argo on behalf of the event organisers.
Mr Kaklamanakis also autographed copies of the ‘20 Years Lloyd’s List Greek Shipping Awards’ commemorative book published to coincide with the anniversary. Ten of the special copies, also signed by Greek singing star Fotini Darra, and by the event co-hosts ERT broadcaster Andriana Paraskevopoulou and Lloyd’s List’s Nigel Lowry, were auctioned during the event and raised an additional amount for Argo. All guests at the event received their own copy of the book.
The annual awards recognise achievement and meritorious activity in the Greek shipping industry and promote Greece as a maritime centre. Winners are chosen by an independent panel of judges representing a broad cross-section of the Greek shipping industry.
The Greek Shipping Awards thanked all the Greek and international sponsors of the prestigious event, many of which have loyally supported the Awards for many years.
This was recognised in the form of honorary statuettes being presented to a trio of sponsors supporting the event for 10 years: Bureau Veritas, Marichem Marigases and the Tsakos Group.
Lloyd’s Register received an unprecedented 20 Years of Sponsorship Award for sponsoring the environmental protection / sustainability award since its inception in 2004.
Diana Shipping was named Dry Cargo Company of the Year while Tsakos Energy Navigation won the Tanker Company of the Year Award. In a rare victory for the cruise sector over Greek ferry lines, Celestyal Cruises won the Passenger Line of the Year Award.
Erma First won its second Technical Achievement Award, for its new high-rated compact Carbon Capture and Storage system (CCS). Star Bulk Carriers won the coveted Sustainability Award and Black Rope took the Safety Award.
Cass Technava Maritime won the Shipbroker of the Year Award – for an unprecedented third time. The Greek Shipping Financier of the Year Award went to Alpha Bank.
V.Ships Greece was recipient this year’s Piraeus International Centre Award. Helmepa Academy was named winner of the 2023 Award for Achievement in Education or Training.
The highly competitive Ship of the Year Award went to “Antonis I. Angelicoussis”, the newly-built LNG dual-fuel VLCC of Maran Tankers.
The Lloyd’s List Intelligence Big Data Award was presented to Procureship.
The Winners
Dry Cargo Company of the Year – Diana Shipping
After launching a spin-off, OceanPal, in 2021, Diana entered the ultramax sector in 2022, through acquiring the Sea Trade Holdings fleet of nine vessels.
In 2023, Diana ordered two methanol dual-fuel kamsarmaxes and entered the wind farm service vessel sector.
The combination of conservative financial management with taking initiatives at the right time won the vote from our judges.
Tanker Company of the Year – Tsakos Energy Navigation
Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) marked 30 years as a public listed company.
In that time, it has made $2.5bn in profits and distributed dividends of more than $800 million. That longevity, over a turbulent period of history, is a great achievement.
In 2023, TEN made a first-half profit of $237 million. The company has been doing what it has always done with great success, constantly renewing its fleet. It has a considerable order book coming on line. This has included the delivery of the first LNG dual-fuel tankers.
TEN heads into 2024 with cash reserves of nearly $400m on its balance sheet and high expectations of a continuing strong period for its fleet of 73 tankers, and three LNG carriers.
Passenger Line of the Year – Celestyal Cruises
In a rare victory for the cruise sector over Greek ferry lines, Celestyal Cruises won the Passenger Line of the Year Award.
It has introduced a new ship, Celestyal Journey, to its fleet.
In addition to raising the standard of its cruise offering, the vessel provided an additional contribution to the Greek economy, as €16m from the total €26m that were invested in refurbishing and upgrading the vessel were spent in Greece.
Celestyal plays a vital role, supporting local businesses, job creation and the economic well-being of the communities connected to its operations, with a total annual contribution of €136m to the Greek economy.
The panel also praised Celestyal for a number of programmes that support social causes, including programmes for children from islands such as Milos, Patmos, Samos and Ios.
Shipbroker of the Year – Cass Technava Maritime
Cass Technava Maritime won the Shipbroker of the Year Award – for an unprecedented third time.
2023 has been a big year for Greek newbuilding orders after a relatively quiet 2022, and Cass Technava has always shone in the area of newbuilding contracting.
It is understood the company has acted for owners in placing orders for well over 70 newbuildings in 2023.
Clients have included many very prominent Greek shipowners but also some big names from oversesas, too. The activity covered a wide range of tankers, bulkers, containerships and gas carriers.
At the same time, Cass Technava brokered 30 secondhand (S&P) transactions valued at more than $850 million. It has been one of, if not the, best year in their history.
Financier of the Year – Alpha Bank
Alpha Bank
Alpha Bank has been successfully involved and continuously active
and committed in financing Greek shipping for over 25 years, and has also developed various specialised products and services to the country’s shipping groups.
With a clientele of over 80 shipowners it is one of the leading lenders to the Greek shipping industry and its shipping loan portfolio has grown to over $3.5bn.
In 2023, more than $1 billion of new financing was provided, not only to existing, but also to new customers.
The bank is aiming to continue supporting its customers by modestly growing its portfolio even further.
Technical Achievement Award – Erma First
Erma First won its second Technical Achievement Award, for its new high-rated compact Carbon Capture and Storage system (CCS).
Erma First’s system is an impressive technological feat, being among the first such systems to the market and is easily the smallest available, occupying much less space than competitor CCS systems.
A version has also been developed specifically for short sea shipping, with the islands in mind.
In addition, Erma First has extended its product range with two other products to support reduction of emissions.
The Safety Award – Black Rope
Black Rope is a one-stop mooring partner for the shipping industry and won the award for contributing to its customers’ safer mooring operations.
The company manufactures its own-braided mooring ropes and supplies them along with other deck equipment, anchors and chains globally.
Its mooring experts provide consultancy, inspection and training and channel their collective knowledge to the software team responsible for Black Rope’s digital projects, including Safe Line, a mooring monitoring and management tool that provides real-time information and data processing on the condition of mooring lines.
Safe Line allows companies to correctly manage the maintenance and replacement of their fleet’s mooring lines, and avoid accidents, such as “snapbacks”, that may cause injury or loss.
Achievement in Education or Training – Helmepa Academy
Helmepa Academy provides a diverse and dynamic educational platform that trains and raises environmental awareness through a multitude of different programmes and techniques, including labs, seminars, webinars, dialogues, masterclasses and mentoring.
It spans a wide variety of topics, such as oil pollution prevention, environmental compliance, maritime safety, cybersecurity, seafarer wellbeing, ESG and sustainable finance.
The Academy’s refresher training programme has reached more than 30,000 seafarers of various nationalities and many others.
It is active in guiding young people to career opportunities through initiatives such as ‘Blue Generation’ and ‘Blue Horizons’, while it has developed courses like ‘Intro to Shipping’ and ‘Ocean Literacy’ that are available free.
In 2023, Helmepa announced it is partnering in a first postgraduate diploma on sustainability in shipping.
Piraeus International Centre Award – V.Ships Greece
Ten years after it started its landmark partnership with Costamare, V.Ships can look back on a great year that has seen 15% growth in the number of vessels under its management and a doubling of its workforce in one year.
It now employs about 200 people and supports local Greek companies providing ancillary services.
It has invested in a new 3,500 sqm office to accommodate the expanded staff and to provide space for training, seminars and meetings that can also be used by other organisations.
V. Ships was praised by the panel for its commitment to high standards, but also to nurturing the next generation of maritime professionals.
Each year it trains a large number of graduates and offers internships to 20 of them.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence Big Data Award – ProcureShip
From humble beginnings in Greece, ProcureShip has grown to become the market-leading e-purchasing platform for the maritime sector.
Its growth has been driven by an exceptional tech solution combined with a very responsive support service for customers.
It has won a number of big shipping company procurement tenders across Europe in 2023 and has opened offices in Copenhagen and Singapore.
ProcureShip eliminates all unnecessary manual work, offering the ability to approach multiple suppliers with one click and receiving all the quotations directly.
The company has used Big Data to create a state-of-the-art Recommendation Engine, an intelligent advanced algorithm that suggests the most suitable suppliers for any type of requirement, broadening the operator’s existing supplier network.
ProcureShip continues to innovate – recent examples are a unique e-Invoicing module which employs Machine Learning, and a new Freight Forwarding optimisation dashboard
International Personality of the Year – Emanuele Grimaldi
Emanuele Grimaldi became the first person to have won the International Personality of the Year Award twice.
The judging panel took into consideration several different factors.
First, Mr Grimaldi’s successful chairmanship of the International Chamber of Shipping, where he has been tireless in promoting the industry and frequently aligns with Greek positions on many of the most important issues.
Secondly, his family business, Grimaldi Group, has been a leader in green shipping and a major exponent of Europe’s Motorways of the Seas programmes. This year has been a landmark for the group.
Altogether it has 26 ships under construction at a cost of over $1.5bn, including numerous large ammonia-ready car carriers.
Last but not least, he continues to invest in Greece. Mr Grimaldi’s best-known investment is Minoan Lines.
However, this year he has won two tenders to invest in Greek ports – Igoumenitsa and Heraklion – important initiatives that help strengthen international confidence in the Greek economy as a whole.
Seafarer of the Year – Captain Kyriakos Mouzakis
Kyriakos Mouzakis, a master of 25 years, and the captain of Zante Ferries’ ‘Adamantios Korais’ was named Seafarer of the Year.
The panel of judges accepted the strong recommendation of the Panhellenic Seamen’s Federation (PNO), that Capt Mouzakis was the worthiest winner of this year’s Seafarer of the Year Award.
As the PNO said in its commendation:
“On August 21 during the great fires of Evros, the Alexandroupolis Hospital was evacuated and the vessel was turned into a floating hospital in full operation.
“On the same day, the patients were safely transported by the vessel to the port of Kavala. The mission was extremely difficult but it was completely successful.”
Ship of the Year – ‘Antony I. Angelicoussis’
The Maran Tanker VLCC ‘Antonis I. Angelicoussis’ was the judges’ choice for ship of the year.
In addition to bearing a lustrous name in Greek maritime history,
the vessel is the first LNG dual-fuel VLCC in the Greek fleet, capable of running on fuel oil or LNG.
The tanker emits 42% less carbon dioxide than an equivalent 10 year-old VLCC and has a host of impressive design features, energy-saving devices
and state-of-the-art onboard equipment.
The Sustainability Award – Star Bulk Carriers
Star Bulk is considered a leader in sustainable dry bulk shipping.
Few companies in the sector worldwide have committed so strongly to ESG principles.
It is one of the few to publish an annual ESG report in accordance with global reporting standards and over the last year or so it has further enhanced its ESG practices and performance through, to mention just a couple of many initiatives it has taken, measuring and reporting “scope 3” emissions, and introducing an ESG committee at Board level.
Star Bulk is also diligently renewing its fleet to reduce its carbon footprint.
Deal of the Decade –
Evangelos M. Marinakis and Capital Product Partners
The Deal of the Decade (2014-2023) Award went to Capital Product Partners for the most impressive single transaction in Greek shipping during the last 10 years.
By spinning off its crude and product tanker business, it created one of the world’s largest public tanker companies with 68 crude and product tankers.
Furthermore, by negotiating a significant premium for its fleet, the company did a great deal for its shareholders. This $1.65bn mega-merger transaction not only positioned the new entity as a market leader but also ensured CPLP’s continued growth in recent years with stable cash flows in the LNG and container segments, indicative of astute market insight and robust financial strategy.
Remarkably, the new entity, Diamond S Shipping, became a market leader with a large-scale portfolio, positioning it for future industry consolidation and another mega-merger with International Seaways.
Today, International Seaways boasts a market cap of $2.3 billion and the total returns for CPLP investors are in excess of 110%.
Next Generation Shipping Award – Petros Panagiotidis
In 2017, Petros Panagiotidis launched Castor Maritime and listed it on Nasdaq in 2019.
Later he took advantage of the market cycles to increase the fleet to 30 vessels with a remarkable buying spree.
This year, he has diversified with his first containerships, spun off the tankers into a second publicly-listed company, Toro Corp., and further spread his operation into the LPG carrier sector for the first time.
He has been shrewdly taking advantage of high values to sell some vessels.
His was a compelling story that could not be ignored by the judging panel.
Lloyd’s List/Propeller Club Lifetime Achievement Award –
Nicholas G. Moundreas
Nicholas Moundreas has been one of the stalwarts of the Piraeus shipping scene for decades.
Starting his career in the family shipping and brokerage business, he went on to form a legendary partnership with the late Captain Nikolaos Frangos.
Good Faith Shipping was established in 1965 and lasted for almost four decades; a tribute to the astuteness of both partners but also of the great chemistry between them.
With Captain Frangos bringing much of the technical knowledge and Mr Moundreas contributing much of the commercial acumen, they complemented each other.
Since then, Mr Moundreas has been busy with the family company, NGM Energy, and throughout his career he has been involved in a large number of ships but also a great variety of different types of vessel.
His high reputation in the industry has also been formed from a lifetime of being true to his word. A worthy winner of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Greek Shipping Newsmaker of the Year – Kriton Leontoudis
After celebrating its 50th anniversary last year, Mr Lendoudis’ company Evalend Shipping has increased the rate of its expansion in 2023 and the shipowner has regularly been making headlines for the scale and the diversity of his contracting of new ships.
Recently, he made his debut in the LNG sector with orders for four LNG carrier newbuildings.
Since 2021 Evalend had the foresight to build up a large order book of dual-fuel very large gas carriers but it has also added crude oil tankers, product tankers and bulk carriers to the orders.
He has also been active in the sales and purchase market and profitable resales of some of his well-timed newbuildings.
He was also one of the most frequent users of the UN-protected Black Sea Grain Initiative, loading cargoes from Ukrainian ports and was also the first Greek owner to send a vessel through the reopened Ukrainian grain corridor in late September.
Greek Shipping Personality of the Year – George Procopiou
Starting in 2022, Mr Procopiou has placed orders for a total 66 new vessels across his three sectors of shipping.
At least three of the LNG carriers have been delivered, leaving an order book consisting of about 11 LNG carriers, six VLCCs, 16 long-range-two aframax tankers, eight long-range-one panamax tankers and, on the dry side, no less than 22 kamsarmax bulkers.
His two FSRUs have been chartered to Germany and have replaced 35% of the Russian gas on which Germany depended for its energy until recently.
The hopes of Hellenic Shipyards for – finally – a revitalisation of shipbuilding and ship repair rest on the shoulders of Mr Procopiou.
Also greatly appreciated has been his willingness to share his honest thoughts and knowledge in industry fora and conferences, often sparking debate in a way that only the great personalities can. He becomes the first person to be twice voted our Greek Shipping Personality of the Year.
20 Year Achievement Award – The Greek LNG Shipping Sector
Lloyd’s List judged this award, and after much discussion, it decided that the emergence and growth of the LNG shipping sector is the single most historic and impressive achievement in the industry over the last 20 years.
It is truly a development of which the whole of the Greek shipping industry can be proud. Back in 2004, when the Greek Shipping Awards started, there was not a single wholly Greek-owned and operated LNG carrier. Today, there are more than 200 in service or on order.
Awards were collectively and individually presented to the personalities and companies that have led the development in this sector, either by being among the first movers or through the scale of their commitment and investment in creating a substantial fleet.
The Award-winners between them control a fleet of one 185 LNG carriers, representing 90% of the Greek-owned LNG carrier fleet – a fleet that has become a world leader.
They are:
- Maran Gas Maritime was the first company to enter the LNG sector as an owner, under the late John Angelicoussis. Maria Angelicoussis has continued his commitment to the sector and the company continues to grow, with 58 LNG carriers in operation or under construction.
- GasLog, which today has a fleet of 37 LNG carriers, with 32 on the water, four under construction and one that has just been converted into an FSRU for Alexandroupolis.
- Dynagas, which was one of the first Greek LNG shipping companies and quickly became a world leader in ice-class LNG shipping. Today it has a fleet of 31 LNG carriers in service and on order.
- Capital Gas has a fleet of more than 20 LNG carriers on the water and on order and is one of the world’s most modern fleets. Mr Marinakis has also pioneered in ordering the first large CO2 carriers and the first Greek very large ammonia carriers.
- TMS Cardiff Gas, with a fleet of 20 LNG carriers on the water and several more on order.
- Alpha Gas, a company that already has eight LNG carriers on the water and on order.
- Tsakos Energy Navigation, one of the first 3 shipping companies in Greece to order a newbuilding LNG carrier. One of the first-movers.
