Schenone makes its debut in logistics

Genoa - Yesterday a contract was signed through which IL Investimenti, a holding company that belongs to Genoa’s Schenone family, is acquiring 100% of Cruise Logistics, an American company controlled by Francesco Maderna and Marcello Ferri, the founders and owners of Italian Seaways. After many financial difficulties, the latter company has started to make arrangements with its creditors, after negotiations with the unions went forward discreetly in recent months for the departure of 20 employees out of a total of 45. The other 20 employees (less than the small number that are working on the creditor arrangements for the bad company), will be employed in the branch of Italian Seaways that is dedicated to cruise ship logistics, which is now rented to the Schenone Group, with an acquisition option in 18 to 24 months. The value of the operation has not yet been disclosed, but one should take note of the entry of the Schenone Group into the area of logistics (it already has a presence in terminal operations, in shipowning and in the shipping agency sector).

Cruise Logistics will therefore operate in a split fashion with respect to Medov, the Schenone Group’s shipping agency, which works mainly in the cruise ship sector and in the car carrier sector. Cruise Logistics will share its computer and administrative infrastructure with Medov as one might expect, but the two companies will work independently because they are quite different. Founded 12 years ago by Maderna and Ferri, Cruise Logistics’ largest clients are the Carnival Group (which controls Costa Cruises in Italy) and the company, Norwegian Cruise Line, another major player in the American cruise ship sector. Cruise Logistics has 30 employees in Miami, another five in Hamburg, and four in Singapore. As stated above, 22 people work in the cruise ship branch of Italian Seaways. The Italian company will most likely take the American company’s name. Cruise Logistics has a warehouse in Miami (with a refrigerated area), the Schenone Group is also taking over the Italian Seaways warehouse and the one in Genova-Bolzaneto (15,000 sqm).

At this very moment, a new C.E.O. is being chosen, and it will not be Giulio Schenone, who has led this operation. The former Assagenti Chief’s move recalls what he did in 2004 with the shipping agency Medov. At the time, the latter was part of the galaxy of Giorgio Poulides, the owner of the failed company Festival Cruises, for which Medov was the biggest agency. Schenone rented Medov from the banks that were its creditors, in order to then take it over at a later date. Italian Seaways was founded in 1983 by Ferri and Maderna. The company is active in the field of shipments linked to naval replacement parts, and has had first-rank companies like those controlled by the Italian Grimaldi and Bottiglieri families for clients - not to mention Carnival itself. At the time of its greatest profits, Italian Seaways had 50 direct employees and a network of 2,000 agents all over the world.