V.Group opens expanded office in Chennai, bolstering organisation’s presence in India

October 10, 2024

From left - Loris di Maio (Director of V. Operating Model), Mario Moretti (Managing Director – V.Ships Asia), and Sriram Gopalakrishnan (Global Shared Service Director/ Interim MD Chennai) credit:V

New office will strengthen V.’s presence in the region and bring technical management closer to customers and commercial activities in India

V.Group (“V.”), the global ship manager and marine services provider, has opened an expanded office in Chennai, India, strengthening V.’s ability to engage with both customers and seafarers in the region.

V. has a long-standing history in India, stretching back to 1984, and this new office allows the organisation to further strengthen its presence in the country. The expanded office houses over 200 colleagues supporting V.’s crewing, seafarer recruitment, ship management, decarbonisation and digitalisation operations, as well as business functions including finance and IT.

The Chennai office is also home to V.’s Operations Support Centre, supporting over 400 vessels managed through its Fleet Cells across the globe.

From left – Elangovan Rousseau (Fleet Performance Manager), Sumant Ahlawat (Operations Director – Singapore and Chennai), Surya Yadav (Commercial Director SeaTec), Prabhakaran Subramanian (Program Manager – ASIA), Rukmani Anandan (HR Manager), Mr. Balasubramanian (Seafarer), Suresh Shenoi (Technical Standards Compliance COE lead), Loris di Maio (Director of V. operating Model), Mario Moretti (Managing Director – V.Ships Asia), Sriram Gopalakrishnan (Global Shared Service Director/ Interim MD Chennai), and Madhan babu Krishnan (Head of Operations Support Programs).

As one of India’s oldest and most important ports, Chennai is a strategically significant hub for V. The company already boasts a number of existing clients as well as an established network of seafarers in the region. The new office will consolidate this presence by combining two existing offices into one.

Mario Moretti, Managing Director, V.Ships Asia, said: “Our new office in Chennai is a great opportunity to better serve both our clients and seafarers in India, and is testament to our ambitions in the region. It gives us a stronger, more consolidated platform for our operations in India and the Indian Subcontinent and will enable us to support our partners to achieve efficient, sustainable and safer operations.”

Sriram Gopalakrishnan, Global Shared Services Director – Mumbai, Chennai & Manila, added: “India has long been an important maritime hub and market for V. Expanding our presence in the country is, therefore, a natural development for us to better serve the industry and be closer to our customers at a time of increasing market complexity. We are excited about this new chapter and look forward to meeting the needs of our customers as their Committed Partner of Progress for Everything at Sea.”