Libra Group


Libra Group is a privately held international holding company operating in a variety of industries. Its 20 operating entities include businesses across six continents, in six sectors: aerospace, renewable energy, hotels and hospitality services, real estate, maritime, and diversified investments.
Libra Group originated with a company founded by Michael Logothetis in 1976; a shipping company under the name of Lomar Shipping. To diversify, in 2003 Libra Group was established as its umbrella corporation, and in the mid-2000s it expanded into diverse industries. George Logothetis is the company's executive chairman, Nick Logothetis is Vice Chairman, and Manos Kouligkas is CEO. The company is privately owned by the Logothetis family.

History

Lomar Shipping

Libra Group's predecessor company, Lomar Shipping, was founded by Michael Logothetis in London in 1976. Michael Logothetis's son George Logothetis joined Lomar Shipping in 1993. In 1995, he became company CEO, enlarging Lomar's fleet from less than five to more than 55 ships during the subsequent decade.

Libra Group and diversification

In 2003, George Logothetis founded Libra Group, based in New York and London, in order to diversify and expand the shipping company into new business areas. George remains Libra Group's executive chairman.
At the time of the company's formation, international shipping was still its chief area of operations. Between 2004 and 2007, during a boom in the shipping business, Libra Group sold off most of Lomar's ships. With the profit from the ship sales, the new company purchased a fleet of airplanes, which were at a cyclical low, and set up an aircraft leasing division, Lease Corporation International, which leases aircraft to airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Libra Group repeated this successful "buy-low, sell-high" formula of going counter to prevailing market trends several times in the ensuing decade, building a large diversified multinational organization out of the former small shipping company. Each of the company's new ventures was headed by existing top personnel or close associates.

Expansion

In 2006, Libra Group started expanding beyond aviation. Its new major ventures included real estate, hotels and hospitality, and renewable energy.
In December 2009, after ship values slumped in the wake of the financial crisis, Libra Group re-entered the shipping business and purchased Allocean and its fleet of 26 ships. From December 2009 through December 2013, the company purchased a total of 73 ships.
In 2009, the company also re-entered the aircraft leasing market when LCI purchased a new fleet of aircraft. In 2012, LCI expanded operations to include helicopter leasing as well.
Libra Group has also expanded beyond its core businesses of shipping, aircraft leasing, real estate, hotels and hospitality, and renewable energy, to include a variety of interests including media, home furnishing, and financial services. Between 2008 and 2014, the company purchased $7 billion to $7.5 billion of assets globally. As of 2023, the company has 20 operating entities in nearly 60 countries around the world.

Industry sectors and subsidiaries

Maritime

Lomar Shipping, the original predecessor to Libra Group, is a Libra maritime subsidiary. Between 2004 and 2007, at the height of a boom in the shipping business, Libra Group sold Lomar's fleet of nearly 70 ships. The company made a substantial profit from sales, which occurred before the 2008 financial crisis.
In December 2009, after ship values had slumped from the recession, Lomar purchased a new fleet and returned to the shipping sector, investing $1.4 billion in 91 vessels – mainly container ships – between 2009 and late 2014. As of late 2013, Lomar operated a fleet of nearly 60 ships, including bulk carriers, reefer ships, container ships, offshore support vessels, liquefied petroleum gas tankers, chemical tankers, platform supply vessels, anchor handling tug supply vessels, and product tankers.
In 2014, Lomar sold its entire fleet of six offshore support vessels for approximately $100 million, just before oil prices crashed; during this period the company sold additional vessels as well for another $100 million. Lomar purchased six container ships and two product tankers in December 2014, and seven more container ships in February 2015. As of 2017, Lomar had a total fleet of over 80 vessels. Lomar recorded close to 2 billion in vessel sales during July 2020 to June 2023.
Lomar acquired 166-year-old Carl Büttner Holding's chemical tanker fleet for $160 million in October 2022.
In 2024, Libra's Lomar Shipping exited the container sector after selling close to 100 vessels for more than $2 billion between 2020 and early June 2024. As of 2024, Lomar has approximately 30 vessels including tankers and bulk carriers.
Americraft Marine, a Libra subsidiary, acquired St. Johns Ship Building in Florida in 2022 to build and service Jones Act-compliant fleets. The shipyard builds aluminum vessels, including crew transfer vessels used to service the offshore wind farm industry.
Lomarlabs was launched in March 2023 to explore adaptive maritime technologies such as carbon capture devices, robotics, and removable wind sails. The same year Lomarlabs announced a collaboration with Seabound, a maritime emissions reduction and carbon capture start-up. In September 2023 a new Libra Group maritime subsidiary, Seapath, formed a joint venture with Pilot LNG to develop the first dedicated LNG bunkering facility in U.S. Gulf Coast. In March 2024 Seapath launched a maritime leasing business focused on Jones Act-compliant vessels with $25 Million in initial transactions.
In January 2024, Americraft delivered the WINDEA Courageous, the first of 3 Jones Act-compliant Incat Crowther crew transport vessels ordered by WINDEA CTV LLC.

Aerospace

, Libra Group's aircraft leasing subsidiary, was founded in 2004. LCI offices are located in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. Since its inception, LCI has undertaken approximately $10 billion of transactions in the aviation market.
It leases fixed-wing aircraft to airlines in Europe and Asia, including Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Oman Air, and Hong Kong Express Airways. After selling its fleet of aircraft in 2007, LCI purchased new aircraft in 2009.
In 2012, LCI expanded into helicopter leasing. In 2014, LCI purchased nearly $1billion in helicopters from Airbus and AgustaWestland; in early 2015 it added 11 more helicopters from AgustaWestland. Helicopters leased by LCI are used for offshore oil operations, for commercial and governmental use, and for search and rescue as well as emergency medical services. Its lease clients in early 2015 included Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service and Australian Helicopters in Australia, and HeliService International in Germany.
In February 2024, LCI announced a commitment to acquire up to 21 more rotorcraft from Leonardo Helicopters under a new framework agreement.
Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Company acquired a 35% stake in LCI from Libra Group in March 2023. In January 2023, LCI signed an agreement with Elroy Air, developer of advanced autonomous cargo aircraft systems, to acquire up to 40 of the company's Chaparral vertical take-off and landing aircraft. In April 2022, LCI signed an agreement with BETA Technologies to acquire up to 125 of the company's electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
In January 2024 LCI launched LCI Analytics, a new research and advisory division focused on consultancy and research services for critical rotorcraft and advanced air mobility operations.
Libra Group announced its project to become the first space leasing company in June 2023, offering satellites, spaceports and various infrastructure elements through a new subsidiary, Space Leasing International.
In November 2023 SLI acquired a satellite ground station in Alaska, the second of over 20 ground stations to be leased by SLI to RBC Signals.

Hotels and hospitality

Libra Group has several hotel subsidiaries, which operate luxury hotels worldwide. The company established Grace Hotels, an international luxury-hotel management company that began in Greece. In 2018 Auberge Resorts Collection took over management of the Grace hotels with Libra Group taking a strategic interest in Auberge.
The hotel chain's first location, Grace Mykonos, received the highest award at the 2007 European Hotel Design Awards. The Grace Santorini was in Condé Nast Travelers Gold List in 2012, and the Vanderbilt Grace in Newport, Rhode Island was listed in Tatlers top 14 hotels in the U.S. in 2015.
Other hotel companies owned by Libra Group, which has a portfolio of 70 properties, include Aria Hotels in Greece.
Elandis develops, owns, and manages real estate, that has included hotels and hospitality properties. In 2016 it opened the first Hyatt Place hotel in Brazil.

Renewable energy

Libra Group owns four renewable-energy subsidiaries with a total footprint and pipeline of around 4GW. EuroEnergy, based in Greece, operates solar and wind energy plants. Greenwood Energy develops and manages on-site solar energy systems for public and private sector organizations wishing to offset their energy costs in Latin America. Greenwood also had a solar-power engineering, procurement, and construction division, called Greenwood Biosar. In 2014 Greenwood Biosar built Panama's first utility-scale solar power plant. Convergen Energy Latvia develops sustainable power sources and renewable energy in the Latvian market.
In April 2022 Latin American subsidiary Greenwood Energy, together with the Confederación Indígena Tayrona, the organization of indigenous peoples of northwestern Colombia, launched the Terra Initiative, a utility-scale solar project in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains. In 2023 EuroEnergy acquired a 114-megawatt wind energy development in Udbina, Croatia for €150 million, and announced its partnership with Afcon Renewable Energy to invest in renewable energy across Poland, increasing the company's European project portfolio to more than 400MW.
In April 2023 GSI, the group's North American renewable energy subsidiary, acquired Ontario, Canada-based renewable energy developer Saturn Power's 1.4GW solar and energy storage projects located across five states in the U.S. and two Canadian provinces.
In January 2024, Iyuhána Solar, a partnership led by GSI alongside the Ocean Man First Nation community, was awarded a contract by regional Canadian utility SaskPower to build and operate a 100MW solar PV facility.