Columbia-Marlow set to become one of 'world’s largest' ship managers

Due diligence for the deal between the two German-origin companies based out of Cyprus is now complete, he said, and completion merely awaits regulatory approval from anti-competition authorities in the countries where the two have important presences – including Cyprus and Germany – with a green light possible as early as June.

The new entity would be called Columbia-Marlow, on the grounds this combines the names in alpha order, and would be involved in the management of over 1,500 vessels, believed to be the largest number of any ship manager, said O’Neil, current president of CSM and former head of international law firm Reed Smith’s German shipping team.

However, number of ships managed is not always the most accurate guide to a shipmanager’s true size, point out some observers, and in Columbia-Marlow’s case only around 500 ships would be under full management, the rest under crew management only.

Crew numbers are another indicator of size, and the combined total of Columbia-Marlow would be 24,000 from a joint seafarer pool of around 35,000, Marlow Navigation joint managing director Jan Meyering told the same conference, powered by Seatrade as part of the Exposhipping Expomaritt Istanbul event.

For comparison purposes V.Ships states on its website that it manages some 1,100 ships and offshore vessels, employing 37,000 sea staff, while Anglo-Eastern Univan is understood to have around 27,000 seafarers.

But certainly any merged Columbia-Marlow would be a new powerhouse in the sector, reasserting Cyprus’ claims to be the world’s leading centre for third-party shipmanagement.