A Worldwide Shipping Empire

The legendary shipowner Sammy Ofer had an interest in shipping in his youth that led him to become a shipowner of one of the largest shipping empires in the world. In the years before his death in 2011, he had become the richest man in Israel as well as an Israeli patriot with a love of the west coastal plain of Israel where he and two thirds of the population of Israel live in the Haifa and Tel Aviv areas. Down the centre of the country runs a mountain range that includes the hills of Galilee, Samaria and Judea. The Judean Hills run south to the Negev desert, which occupies most of Southern Israel, and the Sea of Galilee is linked by the Jordan river to the Dead Sea on the eastern flank of Israel. After the Arab- Israeli war of 1967, the West Bank of the Jordan river and also the Golan Heights in the northeast of the country were occupied by Israel.

Sammy Ofer was born on 22nd February 1922 as Samuel Hershkovitz in Galatz in Romania as the son of Joseph Hershkovitz. His father moved his wife and three sons, Sammy and brothers Yehuda (Yuli) and David, to Palestine in 1924 to live in Haifa. Joseph established a ship’s chandlery in Haifa to supply ships that called at the Port of Haifa, primarily Bulgarian and Romanian vessels. After Sammy finished elementary school, he started work as a delivery boy with the Dizengoff shipping company in Haifa. He enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1940 and served with distinction in the Mediterranean as a Petty Officer on a minesweeper based in Alexandria. He then served in the Israeli Sea Corps during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

After finishing military service, he became a shipping agent and then in 1957 he purchased his first coaster and named it after his son Eyal. This was traded in the Mediterranean along with the coaster Miri of 500 grt and the general cargo ship Orna of 3,169 grt built 1959 under the banners of Mediterranean Seaways (1957) and Tiran Mediterranean Lines (1967), based in Haatzmauth Road in Haifa and later at Hanamal Street in Haifa. The family had changed their surname to Ofer during the 1960s decade.

In 1969, Sammy and his brother Yuli reached an agreement with Zim Line, the national shipping carrier of Israel, to merge their quickly expanding Mediterranean liner operations into Zim, paving the way for future growth into deep sea shipping. This was done via the holding company Israel Corporation, which had been created a year earlier by the Israeli Government as a means of stimulating foreign investment in the country and of which Sammy Ofer was a shareholder, acquiring approximately 50% of Zim from the Israeli Government. A close working relationship was then formed with Zim Line, with vessels purchased for charter to Zim, and Ofer shareholdings in Zim were gradually built up over the next 35 years until full control and privatisation of Zim Line occurred in 2004. Tappuz and Dagan of 6,950 dwt were the first two deep-sea Ofer vessels purchased in 1969 from a trio of Zim four hold engines ‘midships vessels built in Germany in 1954 as war reparations to the damage done in World War II to Jewish property. Tappuz was renamed Alpha by Sammy Ofer and Dagan as Beta and then chartered back to Zim Line.

A total of twenty cargo-liners were purchased second hand during the four years from 1969 to 1973 for charter to Zim Line. The others were purchased from British, Japanese and German shipowners and the next pair were also renamed after the Greek letters of Gamma and Lamda. Larger vessels of up to 15,450 dwt were renamed as Armadora (ex Meishun Maru), Penny Michaels (ex Granwood of France, Fenwick & Co. Ltd.), Argus (ex Hoyo Maru), Enterprise (ex Nanchang), Griffin (ex Deganya), Northgate (ex Horai Maru), Silverland (ex Gedera), and Silvertown (ex Hikokane Maru). Reefers were purchased from Hamburg Sud in Cap Norte and Cap Vilano, five hold fast reefers of 7,980 dwt built in 1955 by the Howaldtswerke yard, and Hornstern of 6,900 dwt purchased from Horn Line and built in 1957 by the Deutsche Werft yard.

Ofer Brothers (Holdings) Ltd. 

Yuli, younger brother of Sammy Ofer, remained in Israel to manage the shipping and real estate businesses of Ofer Brothers (Holdings) Ltd., while Sammy moved to Monaco to found an international shipping group, which later grew into a vast shipping empire known as Zodiac Maritime Agencies in the U.K. and the Samama Group in Monaco. Day to day operations were managed from London, the international trading centre of the world, and with funding from German KG banks, Sammy Ofer became an efficient operator of older purchased and new bulk carriers, tankers, car and vehicle carriers, container ships and reefers for Zodiac Maritime Agencies.

Ofer Brothers (Holdings) Ltd. based in Haifa then began to purchase second hand bulk carriers, car carriers, container ships and tankers for charter to major international shipping groups. The expansion into the tanker market began with the purchase of the 65,100 dwt tanker Cyprian in 1973 from Norwegian owner Hilmar Reksten. She had been built by the Kockums yard at Malmo in 1966 and was renamed as Botany Bay for crude oil imports into Haifa. Haifa controls two thirds of all Israeli imports, and its Kishon Zone was declared a Free Port for the imports and exports of its iron and steel, oil refineries, fertiliser, petrochemical and glass industries. The Ofer tanker business expanded in the 1980s and was managed from their Hong Kong and Singapore offices as Tanker Pacific Management Pte. Ltd. One product tanker was later named after a grandson of the late Yuli Ofer as Ori A of 21,550 dwt, signifying Ori Angel, a shipping executive.

Handy size bulk carriers in the range from 18,500 dwt to 35,000 dwt were purchased second hand and renamed as Negev Arad, Negev Oron, Negev Tamar (ex Nego Victoria of Wallem of Hong Kong), Hadar, Tapuz and Vera. The ore carrier Ems Ore of 130,330 dwt was employed in the West Australian iron ore trade from Dampier to Shanghai, and had been built in 1974 as Vincita for Ugland of Norway by the Oresundsvarvet yard at Landskrona in Sweden. Panamax bulk carriers such as Atlantic Fortune, and Capesize bulk carriers such as Cape Lowlands, Cape Carmel and Cape Tavor of up to 180,000 dwt were later chartered out. Car carriers such as Car Bridge, Car Star, Zimcar and Honshu with capacity for up to four thousand cars and vehicles were purchased second hand for charter.

Reefers such as Avocado Carmel, Galia Carmel, Carmel Topaz, Carmel Eco- Fresh, Carmel Bio-Top and Carmel Exotic, were chartered to the Carmel International Shipping Services Ltd., a liner shipping agency in Ashdod, Haifa and Tel Aviv for the export of Israeli fruit. This company was named after Mount Carmel of 528 metres in height, which is part of a coastal hill range and a UNESCO biosphere reserve, near Haifa on the Bay of Acre a few miles to the north. The high area of Haifa is called Carmel and consists of good quality residential and shopping areas, hotels and the University of Haifa, which has one of the tallest buildings in the country and can be seen for miles around. The newest and biggest container terminal in the Port of Haifa is the Carmel Terminal, which opened in 2011 with a potential throughput of one million TEU per year, and allows two megacarriers of 8,000 TEU to 10,000 TEU to be berthed alongside simultaneously.

The containerisation of Zim Line operations saw a large number of Ofer Brothers (Holdings) Ltd. container ships purchased second hand for charter to Zim, such as Zim Ashdod, Zim Anglia, Zim California, Zim Dalian, Zim Florida, Zim Genova, Zim Haifa, Zim India, Zim Keelung, Zim Livorno, Zim Marseille, Zim Mediterranean, Zim Novorossiysk, Zim Shekou, Zim Shanghai, Zim Singapore and Zim Tokyo of up to 5,000 TEU capacity. Container ships were then purchased for charter to other big container lines such as MSC, CSCL, Hamburg Sud, Norasia, Columbus Line, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), and Far Eastern container companies. These Ofer container ships for charter included Asia Crown, Asia Jade, Asia Pearl, Columbus Victoria, CSCL Qingdao, CSCL Rotterdam, CSCL Tianjin, Durban Star, Gloria Star, Kenya Star, Mombasa Star, Philippine Star, Qingdao Star, MSC Andalucia, MSC Black Sea, MSC Krittika, MSC Mahima, Pearl River, Penang Glory, Cap Blanco, Cap Brett, Cap Domingo, Cap Finisterre, Cap Roca, Cap Trafalgar, Cap York, Houston, Norasia Alexandria, SCI Mahima, and Sea Green of up to 5,000 TEU capacity.

In 1999, Ofer Brothers became the controlling shareholder of Israel Corporation with 52% of the shares for $330 million, and thus of Zim Line, and five years later Israel Corporation acquired the remaining Zim shares from the Israeli Government to complete the privatisation of Zim Line. The two sons of Sammy Ofer, Eyal and Idan, helped him manage different parts of his business empire. Idan Ofer became Chairman of Israel Corporation and managed their extensive shipping interests. He was Chairman of Zim Line in 2009 and was directly involved in the financial rescue effort that finally saw Zim return to profit in the second quarter of 2010 after the serious recession in the container industry since late 2008. Zim Line suffered badly from the extremely low rates for their container ships. Idan Ofer then headed an electric car development company, of which Israel Corporation owned one third of the shares. Israel Corporation, the public subsidiary of the Ofer Brothers, currently has a turnover of almost $20 billion per year and employs some 18,700 people worldwide in the shipping, semiconductor, energy, oil and chemicals sectors.

Zodiac Maritime Agencies 

This London based Ofer Brothers company was incorporated on 16th January 1976 with a capital of £90,000 and began managing chemical tankers in the early 1990s. Two chemical tankers of 39,000 dwt were purchased from Stolt Tankers and renamed Hyde Park and Kenwood Park, and were joined with others with a ‘Park’ suffix in Regents Park and Richmond Park in 1996. Currently, a fleet of seven new chemical tankers of 20,000 dwt are operated worldwide with fully stainless steel tanks and carrying all types of chemicals, acids, palm oils, bio fuel and methanol on charter to over forty different charterers. They again have a ‘Park’ suffix in Battersea Park, Forest Park, Goldengate Park, Greenwich Park, Lincoln Park, Lumphini Park and Stanley Park, the latter named after a large park in Vancouver.

The Zodiac funnel colours are light blue with a blue ‘Z’ on a white disc, which are worn by fourteen crude oil tankers, mostly Suezmaxes up to 160,000 dwt, with ‘Sun’, ‘Moon’ or ‘Sea’ suffixes to their names e.g. Amber Sun, Red Moon and Celtic Sea. Three LPG tankers are operated in Dorset, Essex and Northumberland, as well as nine product tankers ranging from 48,000 dwt to 75,000 dwt. The ‘S’ class of LPG tankers of 18,270 dwt, Shetland, Somerset, Surrey, Stafford, Suffolk, and Sussex, were operated after purchase from Maersk Line in 2001.

In December 2000, Zodiac Maritime Agencies and the associated Eurotower Holdings purchased a 50% stake in ABC Bulkers owned by the P. & O. Group for £68 million. The P. & O. Group still held 50% of ABC Bulkers despite three previous attempts to sell the entire bulker fleet after the unscrambling of the unsuccessful Shougang pool with P. & O. Forty British Masters and Senior Officers were then replaced by cheaper foreign seafarers after management was switched to Zodiac Maritime Agencies. The Capesize bulkers that Zodiac gained were Ormond, Taunton, Zetland, Ullswater, Vine, Duhallow, Eridge, Fernie, Grafton, Cotswold, Buccleuch, Waterford, York, Pytchley, Quorn, Kildare, Meynell, Newforest, Rutland, Snowdon, Irfon and Heythrop. The remaining 50% of ABC Bulkers was acquired by Ofer during December, 2003 for £38 million.

Zodiac currently operates twenty Capesize bulkers including most of the former P. & O. Capesizes plus Brazil Star, Carrera, Cape Eagle, Cape Falcon, Cape Merlin, Eastgate, Southgate, Westgate, Northgate, and Guofeng First, together with another dozen larger bulkers of up to 300,000 dwt. This fleet operates in the Contracts of Affreightment, time charter and ‘spot’ markets, working closely with major mineral and grain shippers, steel mills and power utilities. Zodiac bulkers delivered a huge total of over forty million tonnes of iron ore and coal during 2010 on 221 laden voyages. The Panamax bulkers Red Diamond, White Diamond, Blue Diamond and Morning Cloud operate with seven smaller bulkers in the Handysize and Handymax ranges.

Zodiac also operates 34 container ships on charter to the major liner companies in the world e.g. Maersk Line, Zim Line, Yang Ming, Hanjin, Hyundai, MSC, CMA CGM, CSAV and CCNI of Chile, Hamburg Sud and others. They range in size from feeder container ships of 1,400 TEU capacity up to huge megacarriers such as the new Maersk Edison and CMA CGM Erving of 13,100 TEU capacity and delivered recently. Zim Line is the main customer for container ships, and they operate from hubs in Shekou, Pusan, Hong Kong, Haifa, Kingston, Port Kelang, Singapore and Barcelona. Ten car and vehicle carriers are also operated, ranging in capacity from 3,500 to 6,500 standard car units, and are on charter to Eukor, part of Wilhelmsen Wallenius, CSAV of Chile, Mitsui, Hyundai and other vehicle carrier operators. Zodiac Maritime Agencies currently controls a huge fleet of 161 ships of 14.7 million dwt with a further 23 ships of all types on order.

Samama Group in Monaco

 Societe Anonyme Monegasque d’Administration Maritime et Aerienne (Samama) was created by Sammy Ofer in Monte Carlo in 1975 with a capital of 150,000 euros. He used the same nomenclature that he had used for his ships in Israel, four second hand bulkers of between 28,500 dwt and 40,750 dwt being purchased and renamed Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Lamda. They were followed by forty more bulkers and ore/oil carriers by 1992 e.g. Amber, Ararat, Cabo Frio, Cape Breton, Cape Eagle, Cape Falcon, Cape Hatteras, Cape Kestrel, Capt. B. Ataman, Cornelian, Divisadero, Dorianne, Eastwood, Embarcadero, Gemini, Haight, Hokkaido Star, Hudson Bay, Hydra, Iron Gate, Java Sea, Korean Trader, Lucky Star, Lucky Trader, Lucky Transporter, Montgomery, Morning Cloud, Noa, Northgate, Olivia, Seram, Springwood, Southgate, Talana, Timawra, Topaz, Uraga and Yorkgate. When the first ore/oil carrier named Amber was sold, a newer Capesize bulker of 181,884 dwt built in 1986 was purchased in 1999 and given her name. More Capesize bulkers were then purchased including Kyushu Star of 143,000 dwt, Northgate of 179,500 dwt and Stonegate of 187,000 dwt.

Several second hand container ships were purchased for charter to Zim Line, CMA CGM, and NYK of Japan, and four reefers of 9,000 dwt were purchased second hand and renamed as Mulungisi, River Phoenix, Sea Phoenix and Ural Mountains and chartered out. Ten new container ships of 7,000 TEU capacity entered service between 2006 and 2009 on charter to APL, Hapag, CMA CGM, Hyundai, MSC, Norasia, NYK, Yangming, Zim Line and other container ship operators. Car carriers of up to five thousand car and vehicle capacity were also purchased and chartered out to Eukor Car Carriers, part of the Wilhelmsen Wallenius Group, as well as Hanjin of South Korea.

Tanker Pacific Management (PTE) Ltd.

This Singapore based Ofer subsidiary was set up in 1989, and grew quickly in the crude and product tanker markets, with two dozen Handysize, Aframax, Suezmax and VLCCs owned or managed by 1995. The biggest of this fleet was Maxus Widuri of 337,985 dwt built in 1978 as Coastal Corpus Christi by Harland & Wolff Ltd. at Belfast for Woodstock Shipping (Maritime Fruit Carriers of Israel). The fleet of nine ore/oil carriers of 96,027 dwt owned by the Russian Sovcomflot organisation was purchased in 2001 and renamed with ‘Genmar’ prefixes e.g. Genmar Challenger. A large fleet of 56 tankers of all types and sizes was owned at this point of time, including many VLCCs e.g. Gateway, Headway, Kingsway, Queensway and Starway.

Six product tankers of 46,800 dwt that had been built in China in 1993/94 were purchased for $140 million in 2004 and chartered back to Shell as Hadra, Halia, Haminea, Hastula, Hatasia and Haustrum, and were then sold off two years later.

The Singapore tanker fleet of Ofer Brothers had grown to a fleet of seventy tankers by 2011, and included ten VLCCs and eight new large Aframax tankers in the range of 97,000 dwt to 114,500 dwt. In September, 2010, Tanker Pacific Management (Pte.) Ltd., Ofer Brothers (Holdings) Group, and Associated Shipbroking (Monaco) were sanctioned by the U.S. Government for selling a tanker for $8.65 million to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Ltd. (IRISL) despite international sanctions. Tanker Pacific Management tankers had frequently docked in Iran, and vessels of Zodiac Maritime Agencies had carried helicopters to Iran for secret missions. Under the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) of 1996, these Ofer Brothers companies were prohibited from U.S. foreign exchange, banking and property transactions. However, sanctions were removed by the U.S. State Department in September 2011 on Ofer Brothers (Holdings) Ltd. but remained on the other Ofer companies until they too were removed in April, 2013.

Tanker Pacific Management (Pte.) Ltd. currently controls 37 crude and product tankers of 3.6 million dwt, with a further four on order. Several tankers have already moved to the new Zodiac Tankers operating in London, with the first to transfer being Abbey Road of 74,000 dwt.

MSC Napoli 

The most infamous ship owned by Sammy Ofer was the container ship MSC Napoli, purchased in 2003 for his single ship company Metvale Ltd., and which suffered a cracked hull and a severe list in the English Channel at the beginning of 2007 and was deliberately grounded in Lyme Bay. She had been built in 1991 as the largest container ship in the world by the South Korean yard of Samsung as CGM Normandie of 4,688 TEU capacity for CGM French Line. She had seven cellular holds and seventeen hatches with a service speed of 24 knots from a ten cylinder Sulzer diesel engine of 55,060 bhp. In 2001, when named CMA CGM Normandie, she ran aground at full speed on a reef in the Singapore Strait while on a voyage from Port Kelang to Jakarta and remained stuck for several weeks. She was refloated and repaired in Vietnam but her weakened structure and repair may have contributed to her subsequent cracked hull in the English Channel.

The huge operation to offload her cargo of containers from the two halves of the split hull and the salvage of the forepart cost a staggering £50 million. The stern section was cut up for scrap in situ, a very bad end to a voyage that had started in Antwerp for Lisbon and Cape Town with a very valuable cargo of machine tools, luxury cars and powerful motorcycles, empty wine casks, perfume and spare parts. When the remaining salvaged 600 containers were opened by the authorities at Portland and weighed, a shocking 23% were found to be seriously overloaded, some by as much as twenty tonnes. The MAIB report into her loss concluded that a review of the safety rules governing container ship design and a code of practice for container operations for shippers, shipowners and port operators was a matter or urgency to prevent further losses.

The New Ofer Brothers 

Sammy Ofer repatriated from Monaco to Israel in 2009, and he later died at his villa in Tel Aviv on 3rd June 2011 aged 89 years. He was survived by his wife Aviva and sons Eyal and Idan, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild. His business interests at the time of his death were listed as Zim Line Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., Royal Caribbean International (RCI) Cruises, Israel Corporation, Israel Chemicals, Oil Refineries Ltd., Bank Mizrahi-Tfahot, Tower Semiconductors, Ofer Brothers (Holdings) Ltd., Samama Group of Monaco, Zodiac Maritime Agencies of London, Tanker Pacific Management (Pte.) Ltd. of Singapore and other shipping companies such as Hanjin Shipping with a 12% stake purchased in 2006.

In the late 1980s, he had diversified into cruise shipping by teaming up with the Pritzker family to make a sizeable investment of 16.5% in Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) later renamed RCI. In 1997, he and Jay Pritzker were awarded the honour of Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur for placing orders for cruise ships with the Chantiers de l’Atlantique yards in France. Arne Wilhelmsen, one of the founders of RCCL, had also received this honour from the French Government a few years earlier. Sammy Ofer was a Board member of RCCL until 1995 when he passed this responsibility on to his eldest son Eyal.

Another honour awarded to Sammy Ofer was an Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) on 10th November, 2008 in recognition of his involvement with maritime heritage in the U.K., principally a donation of £20 million to build a new wing at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, and further money to help in the restoration of the clipper Cutty Sark after she was badly damaged by a fire at Greenwich.

After the death of their father in 2011, Eyal Ofer his elder son, was made principal of Zodiac Maritime Agencies, following a reorganisation of the fleet that he and his brother Idan inherited from their father. The brothers now run separate shipping businesses, after spending a year reorganising the Samama Group in Monaco, and one of the biggest shipping empires in the world. Thus, there are two new shipping dynasties that will operate independently of each other and set their own agendas. Eyal remains Chairman of London based Zodiac Maritime Agencies, part of the reformed Zodiac Group Monaco. Idan Ofer is no longer involved in this business, transferring his interests to Eastern Pacific Shipping in Singapore.

This transition coincides with other changes at Zodiac, including Daniel and David Ofer, sons of Eyal, taking over the day to day shipping operations. Daniel Ofer succeeded his mentor Capt. Zingher, while his brother David is now running Zodiac Tankers, a new division of the company set up in early 2013 following the decision to rebalance the fleet and transfer crude and product tanker tonnage from Singapore to London.  At the beginning of 2014, Zodiac Maritime Agencies of London, Zodiac Group Monaco, and Tanker Pacific Management Pte. Ltd. controlled a fleet of over two hundred ships including container ships, bulkers, crude oil tankers, product tankers, chemical tankers, LPG tankers and car carriers.