Aristides Pittas this week became the exception — which proved his own rule — after Euroseas collected $29m from a preferred equity issue that saw Tennenbaum Capital Partners become a major investor in the company.

The fund-raiser was announced just a couple of days after Pittas told a delegation at London’s Dorchester Hotel that smaller shipowners are increasingly marginalised in the capital markets, where he believes scale now matters above all else.

“Size