Into Thin Air with Peter G.

By Matt McCleery

The key to success for recreational climbers interested in ascending the peaks of the world’s loftiest mountains is finding an experienced guide. Since the most spectacular peaks are generally the least accessible, there is no substitute for enlisting a professional with superior local knowledge to blaze the trail.

Some believe that the same logic holds true for financial players hoping to reach the top of the treacherous tanker market. In an industry characterized by having more valleys that peaks and lots of foggy corporate structures, some outside investors looking to reach the summit of a shipping cycle engage a local guide in whose hands they place their financial well-being.

One guide who is leading a pack of recreational participants to the top of this tanker market is New York-based shipowner Peter Georgiopoulos, or Peter G as he is ubiquitously known. Peter G’s General Maritime, the largest private shipowner in the US, has assembled a party of adventure-seeking backers that includes both hedge funds and private investors. With today’s rising tide of the tanker market having reversed General Maritime’s ill-timed acquisition of four aframax tankers from Euronav, market sources indicate that General Maritime is shopping for an underwriter to lead the company’s IPO this autumn.

This is only an excerpt of Into Thin Air with Peter G.

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