“We founded General Maritime in 1997. The company’s growth has been like watching your child grow up and, as a parent – ensuring that he or she gets good grades. Running the company is a very personal matter to us,” says John P. Tavlarios, President and Chief Executive Officer of General Maritime Management LLC. “I have been here since our founder and CEO, Peter Georgiopoulos, started General Maritime.”
Today, General Maritime is doing better than ever with a young fleet of 18 double hull tankers and three more due for delivery over the next year. Before selling the old single hull or single hull/double bottom tankers last year, the average fleet age was 12.5 years and this is now been reduced to 7.5 years. “Due to our recent re-positioning, we now have a modern fleet of Aframax and Suezmax tankers tailored to our customer’s needs.”
“Making money for our shareholders is our main focus. In order to do so, we must focus on quality in all aspects of our operations and be totally transparent. There is absolutely no alternative to this,” continues Tavlarios.
“Our customers are growing increasingly demanding. Either you deliver the right service at the right time or you are out. This is why we focus so much on transparency in our operations. There are the vettings from the oil companies, the port states, the Coast Guard and Class. Our masters onboard are helped by the office to address any issues which might arise on the spot and with full transparency. This is the base line in our company philosophy and our captains are our goodwill ambassadors,” says Tavlarios.
General Maritime sold several vessels last year and there were some questions being asked about the company’s ownership and shareholder structure. Commenting on this, Tavlarios underlines that the sale of the vessels was part of the company’s overall plan to act in the interest of its shareholders by having a fleet comprised solely of modern, high quality double hull tankers and that the company ownership structure has not changed at all. “In fact, we have a very strong financial base. This gives us the opportunity to further expand when we want to.
“Like most other shipping companies, the biggest challenge we are facing is the matter of attracting shipping talent. A college or university graduate may not first and foremost want to pursue a career in shipping and we must be able to attract more real talent. We believe we are an attractive employer in that we are continuing to build General Maritime,” concluded Tavlarios.
In the first quarter, General Maritime achieved a net income of US $ 84.4 million and declared a quarterly dividend of US $ 1.43 per share. “With a high quality, fully double-hull fleet and a strong balance sheet, General Maritime is in a favourable position to continue to deliver impressive results to both its customers and shareholders.
Complementing our ongoing success in monetising our non-core assets, we took delivery of the first of four Suezmax newbuildings during the quarter. This important event marks a new period of growth for the Company and highlights General Maritime’s focus on quality modern tonnage,” said Peter C. Georgiopoulos in the press release on the first quarter of 2006.