Shipping-focused financial experts say that whether this is positive or negative for the public company largely comes down to costs: are the related-party shipmanagers providing management services at a price that is competitive or that is more beneficial to the private interests of a powerful founding shareholder?
“From a technical management perspective, as long as the quality of the vessel operations is maintained, the [operating expenses] are in line with the industry and the management company provides advantages rather than serves as a siphon of funds, there is really no problem and no conflict of interest,” said James Christodoulou, president of French owner Angelmar and a former chief financial officer of General Maritime Corp (Genmar) and OceanFreight.
But
