Dare to be Bold, Heidmar on the Move
Pankaj Khanna has taken the reins and is making a run for it
The tanker pooling industry has always been an interesting niche of the market. The pitch is pretty similar, we have the best people who have great relationships, so in turn we will ‘outperform’ the market, so you should definitely pay us ~2% of gross freight and a daily management fee to let us manage your vessels.
Our machine learning platform allows us to hire entry level chartering managers and they still know where to send the ships! Or, we can also buy you bunkers, yes we will take a constant fee to a separate company, but we will make sure you don’t get ripped off twice! Our team used to work at the biggest oil trading companies in the world, so we get the first look on their cargoes, yes we give them discounted rates significantly below market, but your ships will always be moving! Trust us, you do not want to try this yourself.
It is a bit incestuous as well - so and so and I used to work together or so and so supported me in my last role, so we run their vessels, which make up the lion share of our company.
So when the bones of Heidmar were picked up by Pankaj Khanna in 2020, many people were skeptical. He was acquiring “the brand” and a handful of vessels under management. But after years of floundering and CEO Tim Brennan moving down the street to start his own pool, Penfield Marine, the Heidmar brand was associated with a sinking ship, or a scuttled tanker on the beach - blow torches at the ready.
But what a difference a couple of years makes. Heidmar expanded into bulk carriers and technical management with key hires in 2021 and then did a deal with ‘the devil’, doubling their fleet through a partnership with Marinakis in early 2022. The ball has been rolling since then leading up to the recent SPAC announcement last week.
Heidmar Inc. Announces Business Combination Agreement with Home Plate Acquisition Corporation
Pro forma equity value of $261.4M. Revenues increasing from $5M in 2021 to ~$53M for 2023E. Talk about a turn-around. And the ambitions are broad, but in my mind, attainable.
This is all pretty straight forward. Most pool operators today offer some mix of commercial, technical, bunkering, etc. services. However, Heidmar is taking it a step further with their goal to be the ‘one-stop shop’ for shipping investors and are adding ‘shipbroking’ with an eye to the S&P markets.
This makes sense and something the Norwegians have been successful at, offering asset deals to the investor community. With in-house S&P, pool members seeking to sell vessels will potentially be able to retain fees for the house while also having the footprint to create full-package deals for investors.
I can see the dentists of America, solicitors of London, oil barons of Oslo pooling their capital, having Heidmar’s S&P team find a vessel, the technical team inspect the vessel, the finance department leverage the vessel and the commercial desk employ the vessel. The market goes up and checks are distributed. A beautiful model…almost too good to be true.
Branching into the fragmented dry-bulk market also makes sense. It is more ESG friendly, all those battery minerals mined in Africa and elsewhere will have to be shipped and it provides diversification in earnings. While the markets function differently, it is a huge opportunity. I wonder how long until they have an aggregates or concrete trading team.
By the end of 2023 they expect, or hope, to have 83 vessels under management. This puts them squarely in the mix of legacy players and well on their way to the Nordens of the world who operated 450 vessels in 2022 and expect $330-430M in profit this year.
We are bullish on the growth story. It is great to see a public asset light tanker and dry-bulk company. Many of the pool operators are private slush funds for their owners - so the transparency and public filings will be a change.
Assuming the tanker market stays strong through the vote and Jefferies can eek out the ~$45M PIPE, Heidmar will have the public currency to be an interesting player in the sector across asset-light, shipping tech, and who knows, maybe hard assets in the next downturn.