When veteran Italian owner Glauco Lolli Ghetti of Scorpio Ship Management died in April aged 85, he left a big vacuum in the family business, but had at least organised an orderly handover. “We remain committed to the shipping industry to continue the growth of Scorpio,” comments MD Emanuele Lauro, the grandson to whom Lolli Ghetti had handed the reins a few years ago.

Lolli Ghetti was heir to Giovanni Battista Bibolini, one of the most powerful Italian shipowners of the last century who created a notable dry bulker fleet from scratch. He also developed the Genoa-based tanker company NAI, with a fleet of 50 product carriers and oil tankers and a significant number of VLCCs, ranked eleventh in the world.

He developed other businesses ranging from mining to Genoa’s Sampdoria football team and wisely escaped the shipping crisis of the late 1980s by downsizing his fleet just before the crash.

In 1976, he sold all his activities in Italy, moving into real estate and other business. He took over Scorpio in New York, but his US stay was short-lived and in 1979 he relocated to Monaco. At present Scorpio manages a fleet of a dozen vessels.