“We have always looked at shipping from an industrial point of view,” says Mario Mattioli. “Even in a worst-case scenario – and it has never been worse than in the big collapse we had in 2008 – we would take a global, industrial view rather than looking at our investments in terms of pure asset value and speculating on the asset.”
Mr Mattioli’s approach to the shipping business has stood the test of time. Over the last 20 years, Cafiero Mattioli (Cafima), the family-run, Neapolitan shipping company of which he is managing director, has developed into a sturdy and highly diversified presence across a range of markets, from bulkers and tankers to offshore vessels and gas carriers.
In good times, the Cafima approach, with a focus on measured growth based on long-term relationships with blue-chip clients, might be regarded as overly conservative, and Mr Mattioli freely concedes that he might have missed out on the champagne end of the boom. But as he will also argue with some conviction, it is an approach that provides a measure of security when the weather turns foul.
