Greek ship and football club owner Evangelos Marinakis is often pictured with a scarf around his neck. Usually, it’s of his beloved Olympiacos in Greece or his English Premiership club Nottingham Forest. This week, it was the celebratory red cashmere scarf for backers of his Capital Tankers IPO as he rang the opening bell for the company’s debut at the Oslo bourse. here? And can he and his team satisfy investor appetite?
Over the past three decades, Marinakis has built his private Capital Maritime & Trading into a major shipping platform. He already has experience with two public companies, Crude Carriers and Capital Product Partners, which have since morphed into Capital Clean Energy Carriers.
According to those close to the company, the starting gun was fired in his recent VLCC and crude tanker expansion when Marinakis sold nine VLCCs to Saudi Arabia’s Bahri in August 2024 at record prices for a total of $1bn.
Spotting the anticipated cyclical turn in the VLCC market, Marinakis reinvested the cash in building a fleet of new energy-efficient vessels that form the backbone of Capital Tankers’ fleet today, and which is set to greatly expand its scale in future years.
At launch, Capital Tankers has three ships on the water with five to be delivered shortly. Added to that will be 22 newbuildings delivering through to 2028, including VLCCs, suezmaxes and aframaxes. There are a further 13 options. Three-quarters of them are LNG dual-fuel capable.
Jerry Kalogiratos, the key lieutenant of Marinakis and the CEO of Capital Tankers, says the company’s cash break-even will be among the lowest in the sector, with a “clear committed” dividend policy anchored to free cash flow.
Capital Tankers’ debut in Oslo was “a landmark IPO”, according to Eirik Hoiby Ausland, executive vice president of primary market and international listings at the Oslo Bors.
It was upsized due to demand, attracting around 900 investors, one-third is from Norway — reaffirming Oslo’s position as a place to raise money from a market with an appetite for shipping.
John Fredriksen made his fortune and reputation during the Iran-Iraq war, moving oil from the Middle East Gulf for Iran. Nine of his ships were hit by rockets, and four seafarers were killed. In reference to his lucrative business, Fredriksen’s regular table at Oslo’s Theatercafeen was nicknamed Kharg Island — a location back in the news for rather different reasons.
Marinakis appears to have no appetite for taking similar risks. But he will be very satisfied with freight rates that were already at historic highs before the Iran war began. While Capital Tankers has no tankers in the Gulf at present, rates have hit record levels, generating huge cash flows.
Capital Tankers was priced just hours before Israel and the US attacked Iran. In the three weeks since then, tanker stocks had pulled back from their recent highs on the deep uncertainties of oil flows from the Gulf.
Consequently, it was not a surprise that Capital Tankers’ shares pulled back a little when trading opened this week.
Its market capitalisation stands at around $1.7bn, comparable with Okeanis Eco Tankers, backed by the Alafouzos family.
That is still a long way short of Fredriksen’s Frontline at $6.7bn, which has long been a darling of the Oslo market.
Not only have investors trusted Frontline’s day-to-day earnings from operations, but they have also shown huge faith in Fredriksen’s long-term market strategy and dealmaking. It has consistently given Frontline the highest net asset value in the sector.
It is a territory where Marinakis and his team will hope to match his big tanker rival.
Kalogiratos says Capital Tankers hopes to return to Oslo for an uplisting on the Oslo main market and, in due course, arrange a dual listing in New York.
With a listing in Oslo, Marinakis is taking the contest for investor attention and money onto John Fredriksen’s home turf. It’s sure going to be a high-profile and hard-fought match.
