Ship finance veteran Ingmar Loges has taken on the task of overseeing Newport Shipping's expansion into the German market.
The former shipping banker will take on the role of managing director of a new Hamburg office of the shiprepair specialist.
It marks a shift of direction for Loges who will develop the financial and marketing strategy of the UK-based company.
Loges comes to the position after holding top jobs in the shipping desks of several European banks, including HSH Nordbank, UniCredit Bank and DVB Bank.
More recently, he had teamed up with other German financier to work on a project aimed to lure institutional funds back into the shipping industry.
That saw Loges team up with German financiers, including Torsten Teichert, to form Hamburg boutique outfit Portum Capital Partners.
Loges said that project has cooled as a result of the coronavirus, but added he was still involved in ship financing projects.
Its expansion into the German market is designed to give it a presence in all major shipping centres that is key to building a global network, said group managing director Lianghui Xia.
" I think this is a good base to support the growth strategy," Loges said.
"To run Newport Shipping's Hamburg office is a great opportunity to generate new business within the main services of dry-docking, retrofit and financing."
The move into the German market comes as the shiprepair market has turned increasingly competitive.
Another German venture, Trusteddocks, has launched an online portal designed to disrupt the traditional way that owners hook up with repair yards.
Newport will compete by offering turnkey solutions for retrofitting projects combined with financing services.
The company already owns a shipyard in Turkey and operates through a network of 12 shipyards.
It handles approximately 2,100 dockings annually across the Atlantic and Pacific trading zones.