Basil M. Karatzas is the founder and CEO of Karatzas Marine Advisors & Co., a shipping finance advisory and ship-brokerage firm based in Manhattan, New York, with satellite offices in Hamburg, Germany.
Basil brings more than fifteen years shipping experience in diverse industry functions and in ever increasing responsibility roles, with a proven track record of impeccable execution and delivering outstanding value to clients. His professional experience incorporates port operations, charterers’ and husbandry agency, charter brokerage, ship brokerage and vessel management and vessel operations. Basil has originated multiple finance-oriented transactions in shipping such as sale & leaseback transactions, private placements for both equity and debt, and provided extensively advisory services, vessel valuations, fairness opinions, position papers and customized research reports, in the tanker, gas, offshore, dry bulk and containership markets in both the international registry and the Jones Act markets. Basil has represented repeatedly and exclusively reference accounts such as of major lessors, lenders, financial owners, cargo interests, including Fortune 10 companies, with the re-marketing and disposition of shipping assets, always delivering compelling valued-added services and achieving superior results. Most recently, Basil acted as the Liquidation Trustee for the judicial sale of two pelagic purse seiner tuna fishing vessels under the authority of the High Court of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Basil has been educated at Harvard Business School (HBS) and at Rice University (Jones Graduate School of Management), and holds several professional affiliations and memberships worldwide. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) in the UK, a member of the Baltic Exchange in the UK, an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) with the American Society of Appraisers in the US for vessel valuations and appraisals, a member of the Royal Institute of the International Affairs (Chatham House) in London, an Associated Member of The Royal Institution of Naval Architects in the UK, a Harvard Business School alumnus, a Rice Graduate School alumnus, and more. Basil serves on the board of directors of several companies, including publicly listed companies (in the Toronto and Frankfurt Stock Exchange), private companies, and charitable foundations. He is a prolific author and his articles and contributions have been published or aired in The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Economist, The New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR), The Globe and Mail, The Maritime Executive, and many more.
