In a first of its kind move in the shipping industry, Captain Rajesh Unni, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Singapore-based Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, has handed out equity to a “significant number of employees”, making them shareholders of what is now the world’s fourth biggest ship management company.
Captain Unni announced a new management structure for the 16-year-old company on Friday after global private investment firm Searchlight Capital Partners, L.P. said it bought a minority stake in Synergy Marine for an undisclosed amount. The new management structure, according to Captain Unni, aims to create “diversity in the thought process” to walk on the path of digitisation and decarbonisation, twin challenges facing the global shipping industry.
Synergy manages a fleet of some 500 vessels including the most complex LNG ships (including floating storage units), LPG carriers, 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) plus container ships, as well as oil and chemical tankers, car carriers and bulk carriers, employing more than 18,000 seafarers, of which more than 80 per cent are Indian nationals. It runs 25 offices in 13 countries.
With a strong focus on crew wellbeing, digitalization and environmentally responsible policies, Synergy Marine is at the forefront of transforming the ship management industry.
Synergy provides ship owners with mission-critical services including full technical management (regulatory compliance, maintenance, procurement, and remote systems monitoring), crew management (sourcing and training of seafarers and services like payroll) as well as other marine services, (decarbonization services, seafarer health and wellness, newbuilding design and supervision and project management including the installation of energy saving devices).
“In an industry where equity sharing is not the norm, the inclusion of a large number of employees as shareholders is a deliberate path-breaking stride in our journey,” he told ET Infra in an interview.
The “concept” of making employers equity holders of his company has been on Captain Unni’s mind right from the time he started his venture after a successful career at sea during which he rose to command ships.
“From the day we took our first step together, the foundations of this organization were built on immense care, relentless commitment and a collective camaraderie that stood by us in good stead through the most challenging times. Over the years this has only strengthened, and I truly believe that the Synergy story is a story of partnerships where each one of my team performed their roles far beyond anything that may have been laid out for them,” he continued.
“For me, the philosophy of partnership has been the igniting energy for my personal leadership journey. Right from the beginning, I have been clear that we have built this organization together and there is no way I can claim any rights to sit on top of this on my own,” he remarked.
“It needed to be at an opportune time. We had to walk together a distance, we had to tide over the storms, and we had to build ourselves to be a substantial force to reckon with. Today, as the 4th largest global ship management company with more than 500 ships to manage, we stand together with pride, revelling in the light of our collective achievements and raring to traverse new frontiers. I truly believe that there can be no better time than this to make employees shareholders of the company,” he observed.
Managing about 500 ships also gave Captain Unni the “significant mass” to roll out the equity for employees.
Unni, who was listed among the 100 most influential people in shipping for 2020 and 2021 by Lloyd’s List, a top maritime industry publication based in London, declined to be drawn into details about the exit options for the equity held by employees.
“I don’t know if the liquidity will happen through an initial public offering (IPO) or when and whether we bring in more investors as we grow. There are multiple forms. We have not thought about what is that one way to exit for employees holding equity,” he stated.
Captain Unni emphasised that the company must continue to build value for its customers.
“All my life, I have always believed that there is an inextricable link between human connections and disruptive innovation. The power of partnerships will fuel ownership, diverse thought leadership and innovation that in turn will give us the courage to disrupt the industry. In the new world of maritime, the paradigm shifts in operating models will ensure that we move away from simply offering lip service to decarbonization and digitisation to taking immediate action and become trailblazers in creating an industry that is both eco-friendly and economically sustainable. Therefore, I look at this step as a personal commitment in my lifetime, to create future leadership for the maritime industry who with their raised consciousness will truly be a force for good,” he asserted.
Scotching apprehensions about his role in the company under the new structure, Captain Unni said: “I am still in control. Nothing will change from an organisation structure perspective or the way we deliver but what will happen now is that we have diversity in the board to discuss about how we can constantly create more value for our customers”. “Because otherwise we are all in a traditional industry and if we continue to think traditionally, we can talk all the nice words such as digitisation and decarbonisation, but we need to actually walk the talk, we need to execute and for that we need diversity in the thought process,” he signed off.
