ABS Marine Services is a maritime company built on a master mariner’s instinct to move from managing ships for others to owning them for himself - founded in 1992 by Captain P.B. Narayanan after 15 years at sea, it began with a single ship-management contract for Great Eastern Shipping and has since expanded into a diversified operator that now owns 12 vessels, manages over 36 more, and runs port services at major Indian harbours. The recurring approach is a hybrid model the company calls “asset-light plus asset-backed”: it earns steady fees from managing third-party vessels and port contracts while also collecting long-term charter hire on its own fleet, insulating revenue from commodity-price swings because day rates are fixed regardless of where crude oil trades. # Business segments Four interconnected engines - a ship-management foundation, an owned fleet that collects charter hire, a marine-services workshop, and port-operations contracts at government harbours - each feeding the next with vessels, crews and client relationships. ## 1. Ship Management: the crew-and-compliance engine that started it all **The company runs the technical operations and crew deployment for over 36 vessels owned by third parties, earning management fees from ship owners who outsource the entire headache of keeping a vessel compliant, crewed and seaworthy.** - **Full-service operator for other people’s ships** - ABS Marine handles everything from engine-room maintenance and safety compliance to catering, housekeeping and agency coordination, so a vessel owner can collect charter income without building an in-house maritime team. - **A pool of 2,000 certified seafarers** - the company maintains a roster of qualified crew it can deploy across the managed fleet, which spans offshore support vessels, oil tankers, bulk carriers, passenger crafts and oceanographic research ships. - **Research vessels are a quiet specialty** - the managed fleet includes six named government research ships such as Sagar Nidhi and Sagar Kanya, and the company’s vessels have participated in the US-led Automated Vessel Rescue Program, giving it credentials that matter for institutional clients. - **Software backbone, now moving to the cloud** - crew planning, rest-hour monitoring, planned maintenance and procurement all run on specialised software with a mobile app for crew and a desktop application for maintenance, and the company is transitioning the whole system to a cloud-based platform. ## 2. Vessel Ownership: the asset-backed engine that collects charter hire **The company owns 12 ships - mostly offshore support vessels and harbour craft - and puts them to work under 3-to-5-year contracts with clients like ONGC, earning a fixed day rate regardless of whether oil is at $60 or $100 a barrel.** - **Long-term charters, not spot-market bets** - contracts typically span three to five years, so the company does not benefit from crude-price spikes and is not hurt by price drops, because the day rate is locked in for the contract duration. - **Two ways to put a ship to work** - ABS Marine either charters its own vessels directly to end clients, or leases a vessel from a third-party owner on a time charter (where the original owner bears all vessel expenses) and sub-charters it onward, passing the lease cost through. - **Fuel-efficient fleet as a selling point** - the company’s vessels consume about 5 kiloliters of fuel per day versus the 8 to 9 kiloliters that normal vessels burn, which management identifies as a key advantage when charterers compare operating costs. - **Bought, not just built** - the fleet has grown through a series of second-hand acquisitions rather than only new-builds, including two DP2 offshore support vessels (Ocean Diamond and Emerald) bought from the domestic market in 2025, and two more vessels (HADES and an MPSV) acquired from the international market in early 2026. - **Tonnage-tax discipline** - the company operates under India’s tonnage tax scheme, which taxes vessels based on tonnage rather than earnings, and the difference between corporate tax and tonnage tax must be reinvested in purchasing additional vessels within ten years, creating a built-in fleet-expansion mechanism. ## 3. Marine Services: the workshop that supports every stage of a vessel’s life **Beyond managing and owning ships, the company offers a suite of technical services - from chartering and vessel trading to dry-dock coordination and new-build supervision - that turns its in-house expertise into a revenue stream of its own.** - **Chartering beyond the owned fleet** - the company sources and deploys vessels for clients that need tonnage it does not own, earning fees for matching ships to jobs. - **Vessel trading when prices are right** - ABS Marine buys and sells ships opportunistically, treating its market knowledge as a profit centre separate from its long-term chartering business. - **Specialised mooring for tankers** - the company performs Single Point Mooring (SPM) operations at offshore terminals, a niche capability that requires specific technical know-how. - **Full-cycle support, from design to deployment** - the marine-services engine covers ship conversion, new-build supervision, inspections, and onboard services like catering and provisioning, meaning a client can hire ABS Marine to oversee a vessel from the shipyard all the way to operational service. ## 4. Port Services: the harbour-operations engine with government contracts **The company runs pilot boats, mooring gangs, patrol vessels and firefighting crews at major Indian ports under multi-year agreements with port authorities, providing the hands-on marine work that keeps harbours functioning.** - **Embedded at three major ports** - ABS Marine holds contracts at Chennai, Visakhapatnam and Kamarajar ports, delivering services that range from pilot-boat operations to oil-spill response. - **Ten government contracts, some running nearly a decade** - the company has 10 strategic contracts with government authorities, including a 7+2-year harbour-craft contract at Kamarajar Port won in 2020 and a five-year fire-tender agreement at Visakhapatnam signed in 2024 worth Rs 1.4 Crores per annum. - **Manpower and vessels bundled together** - the Visakhapatnam fire-tender contract is typical of the model: ABS Marine supplies the vessels, the crew, the operation and the maintenance, with fuel costs excluded, providing 24-hour duty coverage. # Group structure and partners **The company operates through a Singapore subsidiary for international ship-owning and an Indian subsidiary for charter hire, with a related-party vessel owner that pays management fees back to the parent.** - **ABS Marine Singapore Pte. Limited** - a wholly owned subsidiary incorporated in 2010, engaged in ship owning, operations and management, giving the group a presence in a global maritime hub. - **Epsom Shipping India Private Limited** - a majority-owned subsidiary (78.18% held by ABS Marine, with the founder holding the rest), incorporated in 2004 as the original ship-owning arm and now engaged in charter hire services. - **Oceandeep Energies Private Limited** - a group company with a common director or promoter holding a major shareholding; ABS Marine earns charter hire and ship-management fees from Oceandeep for the vessel ERIN, creating a related-party revenue loop. - **Banking relationships** - the company’s lenders are State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Bandhan Bank, supporting vessel acquisitions that are typically financed with a debt-to-equity mix of 70:30 or 75:25.