67. Evangelos Marinakis, Capital

An entrepreneur whose interests span well beyond shipping

EVEN though Evangelos Marinakis’ influence can be seen in diverse spheres, his shipping activities, which span a total of 60 vessels under his Capital group, start with a solid base of commercial and technical management expertise.

Shipmanager Capital Ship Management is one of Greece’s most highly certified management outfits, and recently became the first shipping company worldwide to be successful assessed by Lloyd’s Register against the IMO Strategic Concept of a Sustainable Shipping Industry.

The company has also launched a joint project with LR and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering to examine LNG as a fuel and its use on an ultra-large containership design.

Containerships have come to the fore as Mr Marinakis has nurtured his Nasdaq-listed master limited partnership Capital Product Partners, originally a pure product tanker owner, to become a mixed fleet of 30 vessels.

In 2014, the public company took over three 9,000 teu eco-flex containership newbuilding contracts, together with five-year charters to CMA CGM, from private company Capital Maritime. At the same time it agreed to acquire two medium range tanker newbuildings from Mr Marinakis’ private company, with first refusal on another six sister vessels under construction.

Looking ahead, three eco-design very large crude carriers controlled by Mr Marinakis have also been mentioned as possible candidates for Capital Product.

Altogether, Capital Maritime inked more than $1.1bn of investments in shipping since 2013 and has been commercially strong enough to become a key charterer for the public company.

The entrepreneur holds a special place in the life of Greek shipping’s home port of Piraeus due to his chairmanship of local Olympiacos football club, a serial Greek champion.

In 2014, he was elected first member of the Piraeus municipal council on the ticket of the new mayor, Yannis Moralis, with a large percentage of the vote. He has pledged to promote Piraeus as an international business centre and to develop the port as a hub for cruising.

However, he and the new mayor have declared themselves implacably opposed to a current government initiative to sell off a majority shareholding in the port authority.

Mr Marinakis also appeared in the Top 100 in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.