Atef Abou Merhi: Presentations

Atef Abou Merhi holds an RYA/MCA Helmsman’s license, as well as an MBA, and a BSc (Hons) in Ship and Port Management. Through his family-owned business, the Abou Merhi Group, Atef is a second-generation shipowner and is also a founding member and the managing director of the maritime investment company Pelagic Partners.

Pelagic Partners has its company headquarters in Limassol, Cyprus, and operates as an alternative investment fund manager. In this capacity, the company is authorised by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. Pelagic Partners’ two founders are anchor investors and shipowners with access to and intimate knowledge of the shipping markets that has been developed and enriched over three decades.

As of January 2023 Pelagic Partners owned a total of eleven ships, with an additional two commissioning service operation vessels (CSOVs) under construction in India that are expected to be delivered in 2025.

Speaking about his time studying for his BSc at Solent University, Southampton (Warsash Maritime School), Atef maintains that it was the practical elements of the course that have most clearly stuck in his memory, such as learning to create routes on real maps, navigation, and applying longitude and latitude measurements. He also recalls a visit to DP World Southampton during the time the company was in the process of taking over the port and the opportunities on offer to visit the facilities and see the vastness of the operation being undertaken.

Atef’s areas of professional interest include shipping investments, ship management and ownership, public markets for shipping, offshore wind and asset management.